Ololaelaps tasmanicus (Womersley)

Joharchi, Omid & Negm, Mohamed W., 2020, Soil-inhabiting mites of the family Laelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Assiut Governorate, Egypt, Zootaxa 4759 (4), pp. 488-510 : 503-507

Ololaelaps tasmanicus (Womersley)

Figures 43–50 .

Pristolaelaps tasmanicus Womersley, 1956: 572 ; 1960: 35.

Ololaelaps paratasmanicus Ryke, 1962: 127 (synonymy by Babaeian et al., 2019b: 352).

Ololaelaps tasmanicus .— Babaeian et al., 2019b: 352 ; Beaulieu et al., 2019: 5.

Specimens examined. Six females, four males; 27°11’ N, 31°09’ E, Abutig, Assiut; 01 April 2015; coll. A.S. Abdelgayed; ex. soil under grapefruit.

Remarks. Ololaelaps tasmanicus was described as Pristolaelaps tasmanicus , which had been collected from leaves of strawberry plants ( Womersley, 1956). The description of this species is brief and lacks many important details, but additional morphological characters that complement the description of this species are recently presented by Babaeian et al. (2019b). They also synonymised O. paratasmanicus and O. tasmanicus , this decision was based on comparing the descriptions and figures of these species. We followed Babaeian et al. (2019b) and keep them as synonyms. Ololaelaps bregetovae was described from debris in Egypt ( Shereef & Soliman, 1980). This species is also very similar and shares almost all important character states with O. tasmanicus ( Beaulieu et al., 2019) . We were unable to examine the type specimens of O. bregetovae , but by comparing the descriptions and figures of these species we could not find any distinguishing authentic morphological differences. Therefore, we suspect that Ololaelaps bregetovae may be a junior synonym of Ololaelaps tasmanicus . Our specimens of O. tasmanicus agree completely with Babaeian et al. (2019b, Figs 1–15 ). This species was described based on adult female. The male is described herein for first time.

Description. Male (n=4). ( Figs 47–50 ).

Dorsal idiosoma. Dorsal shield (554–567) long, (298–315) wide; ornamentation and chaetotaxy as in female ( Fig. 43 ).

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 49 ). Sternal, genital, endopodal, exopodal, parapodal, ventral and anal shields fused into holoventral shield, strongly sclerotised throughout, bearing st1-5, five pairs of opisthogastric setae (Jv1–Jv3, Zv2, Zv3) in addition to circumanal setae; six pairs of poroids and a pore-like (gv3) laterad para-anal setae. Peritrematal shield free, soft opisthogastric cuticle with five pairs setae and metapodal element merged with holoventral shield.

Gnathosoma . Epistome and subcapitulum similar to female ( Fig. 45 ). Fixed digit of chelicera with one median tooth and large distal hook, pilus dentilis slender. Movable digit of chelicera with one median tooth, spermatodactyl 0.7× as long as movable digit, strongly angled, variously bent, with a large distal knob, duct discernable ( Figs 48 & 50 ), fringed hyaline arthrodial process at base of movable digit ( Figs 48 & 50 ). Palps similar to those of female.

Legs. Without a spine-like seta on femur II; pv thickened on both genu and tibia III, av2 on tarsus II spatulate-truncate ( Fig. 47 ) and pd spine-like on femur IV, other segments as in female (see Babaeian et al. 2019b, Figs 8–11 ).

Figures

FIGURES 43–48. DIC micrographs of Ololaelaps tasmanicus (Womersley, 1956), female. 43, idiosoma in dorsal view; 44, idiosoma in ventral view; 45, hypostomal groove; 46, chelicera, male. 47. tarsus of leg II; 48. tip of spermatodactyl.

FIGURES 49–50. Ololaelaps tasmanicus (Womersley, 1956), male. 49, ventral idiosoma; 50, chelicera.

FIGURES 1–5. DIC micrographs of Androlaelaps projecta Furman, 1972, female. 1, idiosoma in dorsal view; 2, idiosoma in ventral view; 3, subcapitulum; 4, chelicera; 5, femur, genu and tibia of leg II.

FIGURES 6–10. Cosmolaelaps longus (Hafez, Elbadry & Nasr, 1982), female. 6, dorsal idiosoma; 7, ventral idiosoma; 8, subcapitulum; 9, epistome; 10, chelicera.

FIGURES 11–18. DIC micrographs of Cosmolaelaps longus (Hafez, Elbadry & Nasr, 1982), female. 11, idiosoma in dorsal view; 12, idiosoma in ventral view; 13, general view of some dorsal podonotal setae; 14, general view of some dorsal opisthonotal setae; 15, genital shield; 16, sternal shield; 17, subcapitulum; 18, femur, genu and tibia of leg IV.