Molecular phylogeny reveals three new water mite species of the genus Teutonia Koenike, 1889, from Portugal (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Teutoniidae)

Water mites of the genus Teutonia Koenike, 1889 are often common in cold montane lakes and pools of shaded streams and include the fastest swimmers among the water mites. This study provides the first-time calibrated phylogeny of this genus in Europe. Fossil-calibrated modelling reveals that the most recent common ancestor of the European Teutonia spp. originated in the Oligocene. Phylogenetic analyses show the presence of at least five species-level lineages within European teutoniid mites, with the T. corsicana-clade as the earliest branching lineage. We infer the origin of Teutonia corsicana at 29.0 million years ago, near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary, indicating that this species or its most recent ancestor was already present on the Corsica-Sardinia block when it broke off from the Iberian Peninsula. The remaining Teutonia clades are relatively younger and began their divergence in the early Miocene (ca. 21 million years ago) and continued with individual species throughout the Miocene. Finally, as a result of an integrative taxonomic approach, three species, i.e., T. lusitanica sp. nov., T. herminiana sp. nov. and T. condei sp. nov. are described as new for science, and the presence of T. cometes is for the first time molecularly confirmed for Portugal.