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Abstract
A new species of mites Pediculaster ethiopicus sp. nov. (Acari: Pygmephoridae) is described from the forest litter from Ethiopia. The new species belongs to the “calcaratus” species group along with Pediculaster calcaratus (Mahunka, 1965), Pediculaster ensifer (Savulkina, 1978) and Pediculaster clavipes Mahunka, Citation1975. Although this species group could be placed in the subgenus Neopediculaster, that subgenus is not supported by apomorphic characters and requires further study. We define the calcaratus group based on apomorphic character states and provide a key to its species.
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0C2343F1-BC06-4C93-896F-A6D5DE3D1B95
Acknowledgements
We thank to A. L. Sergeyenko (Nikita Botanical Gardens – National Scientific Center) for technical assistance during the description of new species. We are grateful to A. I. Bastrakov (Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) for his help with collecting Ethiopian soil and litter inhabiting mites. The work was conducted within the framework of the Joint Russian–Ethiopian Biological Expedition financially supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences. We are grateful to our Project Coordinators A. Darkov and A. G. Yosef for management of the expedition. We thank Dr. Kemal Ali, director (2009–2012) of the Ambo Plant Protection Research Centre, EIAR, for supporting field studies and organizing laboratory operations.