Description of two new species of genera Fungitarsonemus and Xenotarsonemus (Acari: Tarsonemidae) from West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT

Two new species of tarsonemid mites belonging to the genera Fungitarsonemus Cromroy, 1958 and Xenotarsonemus Beer, 1954 namely Fungitarsonemus jasminae Karmakar and Kayal sp. nov. and Xenotarsonemus chinsurahensis Karmakar and Kayal sp. nov. are described and illustrated based on the specimens collected on the leaves of Arabian Jasmine, Jasminum sambac (L.) (Oleaceae) and Fig, Ficus carica L. (Moraceae) from Chinsurah, Hooghly, West Bengal, India.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A804C43F-2726-4A0C-BFFD-B6B1BB473157

KEYWORDS:

• Fungitarsonemus
• Xenotarsonemus
• Heterostigmata
• taxonomy
• Arabian Jasmine
• Fig
• Indian species

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Vice-Chancellor and Director of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya for providing infrastructural facilities which have made these works feasible. The first author is also thankful to Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for DST-INSPIRE Fellowship for this study. The first author would also like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Tapan Kumar Kayal for his continuous inspiration and tireless effort during sample collection. We are gratified to Prof. Gilberto J. de Moraes, USP, ESALQ, Piracicaba, Brazil and Dr. Vikram Prasad, West Bloomfield, Michigan, USA for their constant inspiration and valuable suggestions to explore the unearthed tarsonemid fauna of India.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

No support of external grant received for conducting this research.