Three new species of Laelaspis Berlese from Iran (Acari: Laelapidae), with a review of the species occurring in the Western Palaearctic Region

Abstract

This paper reports on five species of mites of the genus Laelaspis associated with ants in Iran – Laelaspis astronomicus (Koch) from Tapinoma simrothi, Laelaspis equitans (Michael) from Messor sp. and Camponotus sp., Laelaspis kamalii Joharchi and Halliday sp. nov. from Tapinoma sp., Laelaspis pennatus Joharchi and Halliday sp. nov. from Tetramorium caespitum, and Laelaspis persicus Joharchi and Halliday sp. nov. from Pheidole pallidula. Laelaspis imitatus Reitblat has also been reported from Iran, in association with an unknown insect. A key to species of Laelaspis occurring in the Western Palaearctic Region is presented, with a summary of their host associations and biology.

Keywords:

• Laelapidae
• Laelaspis
• ants
• Iran

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the project “Identification of laelapid mites (Acari:Mesostigmata) associated with arthropods” funded by Yazd branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran, which is greatly appreciated. We are very grateful to Alireza Nemati (Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Shahrekord University) for sharing information about Iranian Laelapidae, to Saeed Mohammadzade Namin and Masoud Hakimitabar (Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, University of Tehran) for their help to the first author during field work, to Olga Makarova for help in locating a copy of Pirianyk (1959), to the reviewers for their comments and to CSIRO for their support of this project.