Hygrobates (s. str.) arenarius Smit & Pešić, 2017 (Fig. 23 B) Material examined: Calabria: I 436, 10/11/1; I 1105, 1/1/0 slide; I 1231, 0/1/0; Friuli-Venezia Giulia: I 1598, 1/1/1; I 1600, 0/1/0; I 1603, 1/0/1; I 1607, 0/1/0; I 1609, 1/0/2; Lombardia: I TG 13-08, 0/1/2; Sicilia: I 830a, 10/7/1; Trentino-Alto Adige: I sa 28, 3/2/1; I sa 29, 10/8/0; I sa 30, 1/2/0; I sa 31, 6/6/3; I sa 32, 1/0/0. 13 sites, 96 specimens. Habitat: In N Germany preferably in lowland streams with dead wood and rich in macrophytes (Pešić et al. 2017), in Italy frequent in large rheocrenes (It.: “fontanili”). Distribution: Central and Southern Europe. Probably, many of the records from such habitats in N Italy under the name of H. fluviatilis (e.g., in Gerecke & Di Sabatino 2013, see below under “ H. fluviatilis -group”) refer to this species. Records from the South scattered, remarkable the isolated population in a strong rheocrene in Sicily (Fiumedinisi, I 830a). First records from Italy.

Published as part of Gerecke, Reinhard, 2021, The water mites of the family Hygrobatidae (Acari, Hydrachnidia) in Italy, pp. 1-85 in Zootaxa 5009 (1) on page 46, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5009.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5157635