Two new species of the family Phthiracaridae (Acari, Oribatida) from New Zealand, including keys to all species of Plonaphacarus and Arphthicarus of the Australian region

Abstract

Two new species of the family Phthiracaridae (Acari, Oribatida) from New Zealand are described: Plonaphacarus aitu sp. nov. from the Middle Island, Mercury Islands, and Arphthicarus minimus sp. nov. from the Capleston Beetle Reserve and Mt. Moehau. Keys to the species of Plonaphacarus and Arphthicarus known from Australian region are provided.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:243BCB6D-0833-4B12-B72F-9154A6FD096F

Keywords:

• soil mites
• Oribatida
• ptyctimous mites
• Plonaphacarus
• Arphthicarus
• new species
• New Zealand

Acknowledgement

We thank all collectors of specimens reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The first author’s work was supported by the Funds for The Excellent Youth Scholars of “NEIGAE, CAS” [DLSYQ2012004], the Knowledge Innovation Programs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [KSCX2-EW-Z-8], the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China—Fauna Sinica [31493021], the key research program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [grant number KZZD-EW-TZ-16], the Scientific and Technological Developing Scheme of Jilin Province [No. 20130206073], and the State Key Program of National Natural Science of China [grant number 41430857]. The second author’s research on defining New Zealand mites was supported by Core funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science and Innovation Group.