Zachvatkinia stercorarii Dubinin, 1952

Han, Yeong-Deok, Mironov, Sergey V., Kim, Jeong-Hoon & Min, Gi-Sik, 2021, Feather mites (Acariformes, Astigmata) from marine birds of the Barton Peninsula (King George Island, Antarctica), with descriptions of two new species, ZooKeys 1061, pp. 109-130 : 109

Zachvatkinia stercorarii Dubinin, 1952

Zachvatkinia stercorarii Dubinin, 1949: 227, fig. 12, nom. nudum, 1952: 255, figs 1, 2; Atyeo and Peterson 1967: 103, 1970: 147; Mironov 1989: 100-111, figs 3, 7, 8.

Material examined.

3 males and 3 females (NIBR No. NIBRIV0000887175-NIBRIV0000887180) from Stercorarius maccormicki Saunders ( Charadriiformes , Stercorariidae ), Antarctica, King George Island , King Sejong station, Barton Peninsula, 62°14'2"S, 58°46'20"W, 21 January 2016, coll. Han Y.-D.

Remarks.

Zachvatkinia stercorarii was described by Dubinin (1952) based on specimens collected from three species of skuas or jaegers, Stercorarius pomarinus (Temminck) (type host), S. parasiticus (Linnaeus), and S. longicaudus Vieillot, from Wrangel Island, Russia. Furthermore, it was shown that mites from S. parasiticus and S. longicaudus belong to a separate species, Z. isolata Mironov, 1989 ( Mironov 1989; Dabert et al. 2015). In Antarctica, Z. stercorarii was previously reported from S. antarcticus (Lesson) from Adelaide Island and the Palmer Archipelago and from S. maccormicki from Cape Hallett, Haswell Islands, Ross Island, and Victoria Land ( Atyeo and Peterson 1967, 1970).

Although Z. stercorarii and Z. isolata are associated with birds in the order Charadriiformes , these mite species belong to the puffini species group, which is characterized by a single dorsobasal spine on tarsus IV in males and setae d1 situated off the lateral hysteronotal shields in females ( Mironov 1989). All remaining species of the puffini group are associated with Procellariiformes , while other representatives of the genus Zachvatkinia associated with Charadriiformes belong to the sternae species group. It was hypothesized that the common ancestors of Z. stercorarii and Z. isolata were probably transferred from some procellariiform hosts to the ancestor of the family Stercorariidae ( Dabert and Mironov 1999).

Zachvatkinia stercorarii can be clearly distinguished from Z. isolata in having the following features: in males, the bases of genital setae g are adjacent (vs distant from each other); in females, the posterior margin of the prodorsal shield is just slightly convex (vs strongly convex), and the lateral margins of this shield have small incisions posterior to the bases of setae se (vs smooth and without incisions) ( Mironov 1989).

Molecular data.

The COI sequences were obtained from two individuals and deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MZ489647 and MZ489648.