Crossipalpus Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996

Beard, Jennifer J., Seeman, Owen D. & Bauchan, Gary R., 2014, Tenuipalpidae (Acari: Trombidiformes) from Casuarinaceae (Fagales), Zootaxa 3778 (1), pp. 1-157 : 22

Crossipalpus Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996

Type species. Crossipalpus verticillatae Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. All life stages: dorsal opisthosoma with 12 pairs of thinly to broadly lanceolate setae; c2, d2, and e2 present; setae f2 absent; setae e2 close to marginal position; setae h2 similar in size and form to other dorsal setae; palps 5-segmented, setal formula 0, 0, 0, 1, 3(1); anterior margin of prodorsum smoothly rounded, without projections/notches; ventral plate absent; 2 pairs of pseudanal setae (ps1–2) on weakly developed anal plates. Adult female: anterior margin of prodorsum without projections, smoothly rounded, completely concealing the gnathosoma; genital plate membranous, weakly developed; metapodal plates not developed; coxae I without 1c; trochanters I–IV 1-1 -2-1; femora I–IV 3-3 -2-1; genua I–IV 1-1 -0-0 (ge I–II with either l′′ or d present); tibiae I–IV 4-4 -3-3; tarsi I–IV with or without tc′′. Setae v ′ added to tr IV in adult; v ′ added to tr I–III in deutonymph; l ′ added in protonymph. Solenidia of male much thicker and longer than those of female.

Species. Four species: Cr. gersoni , Cr. muellerianae , Cr. raveni , Cr. verticillatae .

Hosts and distribution. Casuarinaceae , Australia.

Remarks. All known Crossipalpus species have the setal formula for genua I–IV 1-1 -0-0. In Cr. muellerianae and Cr. verticillatae , the seta present on ge I–II is l′′, but in the two new species, Cr. gersoni and Cr. raveni , the seta is d. This difference is an example of how setal counts alone can conceal useful information that only chaetotaxy can present.