Formicomotes octipes Sevastianov, 1980

Rahiminejad, Vahid & Hajiqanbar, Hamidreza, 2020, New records of mites of the Heterostigmata (Acari: Prostigmata) associated with insects from Golestan Province, northern Iran, Persian Journal of Acarology 9 (3), pp. 233-242 : 234-235

Formicomotes octipes Sevastianov, 1980

World distribution – Ukraine, 14 females associated with Lasius fuliginosus (Latreille) (Hym.: Formicidae ) ( Sevastianov 1980). Crimea, 31 females in wet forest litter under oriental beech Fagus orientalis Lipsky ( Khaustov and Frolov 2018) .

Material examined – Two females removed from a vial containing 22 Tetramorium sp. (Hym.: Formicidae ) and 2 females extracted from a vial containing 11 Tetramorium sp., both captured by a light trap in shore of Caspian Sea, Bandar-E-Turkmen, 36.89 N, 54.05 E, and altitude 1 m a.s.l., 6 May 2013 and in Oak forest in the Alang-Dareh forest, Gorgan, 36.46 N, 54.26 E, and altitude 301 m a.s.l., 16 August 2014, respectively.

Remarks – Genus Formicomotes is new for mite fauna of Asia. Also, this is a new association between this mite and the ant genus Tetramorium . Another species of this genus, F. heteromorphus Magowski, 1988 reported from Thailand as a pest of cultivated mushroom, Auricularia polytricha ( Walter et al. 2009) . Third species of the genus, Formicomotes brasieliensis Khaustov and Forolov, 2018 was described associated with termite workers, Nasutitermes sp., from Brazil ( Khaustov and Frolov 2018).