Platylaelaps Berlese, 1905

MAŠÁN, PETER & HALLIDAY, BRUCE, 2014, Review of the mite family Pachylaelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata), Zootaxa 3776 (1), pp. 1-66 : 52

Genus Platylaelaps Berlese, 1905 (Neoparasitidae?)

Platylaelaps Berlese, 1905: 165 . Type species Pachylaelaps (Platylaelaps) latus Berlese, 1905 (not Pachylaelaps latus Schweizer, 1961 ), by original designation.

Notes. No type specimens of the monotypic genus Platylaelaps are available in the Berlese Acaroteca in Florence. The material is missing and must be considered lost ( Castagnoli & Pegazzano, 1985). The original description in Berlese (1905) is too brief and insufficient to enable the genus and species to be recognised.

A schematic illustration of the ventral side of a female is available in Berlese 1905 (Pl. XVI, Fig. 29). From that illustration we can derive some useful information: (1) tarsus II has one spur-like seta, legs II are enlarged, (2) a continuous sternal-metasternal-endopodal-exopodal-peritrematal shield complex is present, (3) the peritrematal shields are not strongly expanded behind coxae IV; (4) the parapodal platelets are very narrow and not connected to the epigynal or ventral sections of the geniti-ventri-anal shield; (5) the anal and epigynal shields are fused with the ventral shields to form a spindle-shaped geniti-ventri-anal shield. These features may be found in other pachylaelapid genera, but a complete geniti-ventri-anal shield can be found only in Olopachys . In contrast to Platylaelaps , Olopachys has the peritrematal shields strongly expanded behind coxae IV and connected to the lateral margins of the geniti-ventri-anal shield. The genus Platylaelaps appears to be a member of the Pachylaelapidae or Neoparasitidae , but we cannot be more specific until more material is collected.