Second species of the family Arborichthoniidae (Acari: Oribatida), from agricultural soil in Iran

ABSTRACT

The oribatid mite family Arborichthoniidae (infraorder Enarthronota) has been represented by a single species, Arborichthonius styosetosus Norton, 1982, known from a few, isolated collections in forested regions of North America, China and Japan. Herein, we describe a second species, Arborichthonius azarbaijaniensis Lotfollahi & Movahedzade sp. nov., on the basis of a single adult collected from agricultural soil, below the disturbed layer of a wheat field in the Marand region, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. It is easily distinguishable from the type species by several characters relating to setal form, and represents the first record of Arborichthoniidae from the Middle East. The first distribution record of A. styosetosus from New Hampshire (USA), as well as notes on morphological variation, is also presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Arborichthonius
• East Azerbaijan
• oribatid mites
• Marand
• wheat

Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University (Iran) and the JSPS KAKENHI (grant numbers 25281053, 70355337). We are grateful to Dr Valerie Behan-Pelletier, Dr Barry M. OConnor and Prof. Hui-fu Wang for providing specimens of A. styosetosus, and Dr Jun Chen for help with Chinese literature. Prof. Jun-ich Aoki kindly offered both specimens and helpful advice, Mr Ichiro Maruyama provided valuable information and Dr Ekaterina Sidorchuk helped with Figure 2(b).

Additional information

Funding

This research was partly supported by Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University (Iran) and the JSPS KAKENHI: [grant numbers 25281053, 70355337].