A new species of the myrmecophile Oplitis Berlese (Acari: Oplitidae) from Iran

ABSTRACT

Oplitis Berlese is the largest genus of the mite family Oplitidae (Mesostigmata), with a worldwide distribution. A new oplitid mite Oplitis quadrigenitalis Babaeian sp. nov. is described and illustrated, based on adult females collected in the nest of Lasius neglectus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Taleghan region (Alborz Province), Iran. Within this genus, the new species is unique with regard to the combination of the following character states: (1) dorsal and most ventral idiosomal setae obovate-mucronate, (2) sternal region free, only fused with ventral shield posterolaterally, (3) epigynal shield square-shape and finely punctated, (4) perigenital ring undulating and entire in whole length, (5) peritreme U-shape, and (6) epistome with denticulate base and numerous outgrowths apically.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:71DDE02A-5222-435E-84AF-6627CDFCE909

KEYWORDS:

• Mesostigmata
• Uropodina
• ants
• Formicidae
• description

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Bruce Halliday (CSIRO, Canberra, Australia) for sending related papers and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on previous version of manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Present work was supported by University of Tehran, under the grant number [7110018/6/26].