Strelkoviacarus Dubinin, 1953

Pedroso, Luiz Gustavo A. & Hernandes, Fabio Akashi, 2018, Two new feather mite species of the family Analgidae (Acariformes: Analgoidea) from the Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis (Müller, 1776) (Passeriformes: Passerellidae), Zootaxa 4461 (2), pp. 233-244 : 238-239

Genus Strelkoviacarus Dubinin, 1953

Type species: Pteronyssus quadratus Haller, 1882 , by original designation

The genus Strelkoviacarus was originally established in the family Epidermoptidae by Dubinin (1953). Fain (1965) excluded Strelkoviacarus from this family and regarded it as incertae sedis. Gaud & Atyeo (1982) placed this genus in the family Analgidae , subfamily Anomalginae .

Females of Strelkoviacarus are the only mites of the family Analgidae detected in phoretic association with louse flies ( Diptera : Hippoboscidae ) specialized to birds that explains polyxenic host associations and almost cosmopolitan distribution of their species, since hippoboscids can carry these mites to long distances and transfer between phylogenetically distant hosts like Coraciiformes, Piciformes, Galliformes, Strigiformes and Passeriformes (Mironov 1996; Philips 2000; Mironov et al. 2010; Fuentes-Castillo et al. 2016). Up to date, four Strelkoviacarus species have been described: S. critesi Spory, 1965 , S. holoaspis Mironov et al., 2010 , S. integer ( Trouessart & Neumann, 1888) and S. quadratus (Haller, 1882) ( Trouessart & Neumann 1888; Spory 1965; Hill et al. 1967; Gaud & Atyeo 1996; Mironov et al. 2010).