Two new species of Pachyseius Berlese (Acari: Gamasida, Pachylaelapidae) from Europe, with a redescription of Pachyseius angustiventris Willmann

ABSTRACT

Pachyseius accedens sp. nov. and Pachyseius arrhenobasis sp. nov. are described and illustrated based on specimens from litter and soil detritus of montane forest habitats in Bulgaria (Rhodope Mts., Malesh Mts.) and Romania (Carpathian Mts.: Bârgău Mts., Călimani Mts.), respectively. In addition, Pachyseius angustiventris Willmann, 1935, a little known and inadequately described congeneric species, is newly redescribed and illustrated, based on females from the Western and Central Europe (Wales, Germany). Comparing the type material of the following species, Pachyseius morenoi Moraza, 1993 is not considered to be a valid species, and is included in synonymy with P. angustiventris.

KEYWORDS:

• Acari
• Mesostigmata
• Gamasida
• Pachyseius
• new species
• new synonymy
• Europe

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to María Lourdes Moraza, Ángel Chavez-Illana (both from University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain), and Stefan Friedrich (Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, Germany), for their kindness in providing access to the type material of the studied species. We sincerely thank Ivan Mihál (Institute of Forest Ecology, Zvolen, Slovakia) and Peter Fenďa (Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia) who collected important part of the specimens examined. We gratefully acknowledge Bruce Halliday (CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australia) for kind help in providing the Willmann’s paper cited in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was fully supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and the Academy of Sciences (VEGA [grant number 2/0091/14]: Arboricolous mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) associated with wood-destroying insects and fungi in Slovakia, with consideration on taxonomy, ecology, and chorology of individual species).