The family Melicharidae (Acari, Mesostigmata) in Slovakia, with description of new species, annotated faunal synopsis and identification keys of species from Europe

摘要

The mites of the family Melicharidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) collected in Slovakia are reviewed. Sixty-one species belonging to five genera were recorded, of which thirty-three are new to science and fifteen are new to the Slovak fauna. All species are revised and rediagnosed, and an extensive set of photomicrographs (more than 1,300 images arranged in 337 Plates) is provided for their identification. Information on habitat and regional distribution is provided for each species. Proctolaelaps (fifty-three species) is the most species-rich and morphologically heterogeneous genus in the family. The following thirty-three new species are proposed and described: Mycomelichares triplacis sp. nov., Proctolaelaps appendiculatus sp. nov., Proctolaelaps bivalvifer sp. nov., Proctolaelaps bombi sp. nov., Proctolaelaps bucinator sp. nov., Proctolaelaps calycinus sp. nov., Proctolaelaps carnifex sp. nov., Proctolaelaps conifericola sp. nov., Proctolaelaps coralifer sp. nov., Proctolaelaps cryptopteryx sp. nov., Proctolaelaps dendroctonoides sp. nov., Proctolaelaps dorci sp. nov., Proctolaelaps dorcisimilis sp. nov., Proctolaelaps fagi sp. nov., Proctolaelaps falcarius sp. nov., Proctolaelaps fragilis sp. nov., Proctolaelaps fusifer sp. nov., Proctolaelaps hemisphaericus sp. nov., Proctolaelaps laeviusculus sp. nov., Proctolaelaps myrmecophilus sp. nov., Proctolaelaps orolaelapoides sp. nov., Proctolaelaps oxyodon sp. nov., Proctolaelaps pcolai sp. nov., Proctolaelaps pelticola sp. nov., Proctolaelaps populi sp. nov., Proctolaelaps quadridens sp. nov., Proctolaelaps sacculiger sp. nov., Proctolaelaps sagittarius sp. nov., Proctolaelaps serpentarius sp. nov., Proctolaelaps spanius sp. nov., Proctolaelaps speluncarum sp. nov., Proctolaelaps tubisaccus sp. nov., and Proctolaelaps tulipifer sp. nov. Nineteen new species are recognized in the present work, which were previously thought to belong to a single species, Proctolaelaps pygmaeus (J. Müller, 1859). The species boundaries of these species are often only weakly determined by some external morphological characters, but well definable and recognizable by the morphology of the internal structures of the sperm access system in the female (the same is true for the species related to Proctolaelaps hystrix). Proctolaelaps bulbicolus (Oudemans, 1929), Proctolaelaps convivus (Berlese, 1916), Proctolaelaps fissuratus (Berlese, 1916), Proctolaelaps laevisternus (Berlese, 1916), Proctolaelaps sopalit (Sam?iňák, 1958), Proctolaelaps vulgaris (Pinchuk, 1972), and Proctolaelaps ovatus (Ma, Ning Wei, 2003), previously suspected to be junior synonyms of Proctolaelaps pygmaeus (J. Müller, 1859), are here considered as unrecognizable species, relegated to the species incertae sedis, or species related within the invalid genus Proctofissus Karg, 1979. The very broad concept of the genus Proctolaelaps does not reflect the phylogenetic relationships within the apparently morphologically heterogeneous species, and it needs a thorough revision. As documented in present work. the genus includes species with different types of sperm access system: for example, species in the hystrix group possess the "laelapoid-type" of the sperm access system, whereas species related to Proctolaelaps pygmaeus (here placed in the pygmaeus group) have a highly modified sperm access system derived from the "phytoseioid-type", with two separate parts each associated with coxa III and clearly not connected by a medial structure called the "sacculus foemineus" (a specific component of the laelapoid-type sperm access system). The taxonomy includes four new specific synonyms as follows: Proctolaelaps arctorotundus Nikolsky, 1984 = Proctolaelaps epuraeae Hirschmann, 1962, Proctolaelaps pruni Karg, 1988 = Proctolaelaps eccoptogasteris (Vitzthum, 1923), Proctolaelaps pseudofiseri Nikolsky