Neocypholaelaps Vitzthum, 1942

Masan, Peter, 2017, A revision of the family Ameroseiidae (Acari, Mesostigmata), with some data on Slovak fauna, ZooKeys 704, pp. 1-228 : 1

Genus Neocypholaelaps Vitzthum, 1942

Cypholaelaps Berlese, 1918: 117 (preocc. by Cypholaelaps Berlese, 1916b: 166).

Neocypholaelaps Vitzthum, 1942: 763. Replacement name for Cypholaelaps Berlese, 1918: 117. Type species: Laelaps ampullula Berlese, 1910, by original designation.

Indoseius Evans, 1955b: 107. Type species: Indoseius stridulans Evans, 1955, by original designation. Synonymy by Evans (1963a). Not Indoseius Ghai & Menon, 1969 (= Indoseiulus Ehara, 1982, replacement name for Indoseius sensu Ghai & Menon, 1969).

Neocypholaelaps . - Evans 1963a: 210; Karg 1993: 220; Moraes and Narita 2010: 38.

Diagnosis (adults).

Dorsal shield variously sclerotised and ornamented, normally with 29 pairs of setae (28 pairs in Neocypholaelaps xylocopae , and 30 pairs in Neocypholaelaps novaehollandiae ). Dorsal shield setae simple or variously modified, needle-like (smooth, pilose or serrate) to lanceolate or clavate (densely plumose), and sexually dimorphic: females with similar setae; males with at least one seta conspicuously enlarged, or with a mixture of shortened, thickened and lengthened setae). In female, st1 and st2 on sternal shield, st3 on soft integument or small suboval pseudo-metasternal platelets and st4 on soft integument; sternal and epigynal shields usually smooth and unornamented on surface; genital poroids outside the epigynal shield. Female with anal shield bearing three circum-anal setae, male with slightly expanded anal shield or ventrianal shield bearing 1-3 pairs of opisthogastric setae (often JV2 and/or JV3, rarely also ZV2). Peritrematal shields or peritremes with anterior ends connected to dorsal shield. Opisthogastric soft integument with six pairs of setae in female (five pairs in Neocypholaelaps wilsoni ). Soft striate integument usually densely incrusted with sclerotic denticles or tubercles. Corniculi slender and convergent, surrounded by hyaline membranes, with undivided and pointed apex. In female, fixed digit of chelicera usually edentate on proximal masticatory area, with at most one weak subdistal tooth, bearing hyaline lobed appendage; movable digit edentate, sometimes with subapical denticle, well hooked distally, and provided with spermatodactyl in male. Epistome with rounded and denticulate anterior margin. Palptarsal apotele two-tined. Genu III and tibiae III-IV with two anterolateral and one posterolateral setae. Tarsi I-IV each with well developed empodium and claws. Insemination apparatus with spermathecal ducts fused or separate.

Remarks.

This genus now comprises 22 species based from tropical and subtropical areas of Africa (eight species), Asia (ten species), Australia and Oceania (three species) and South America (one species). Neocypholaelaps favus and Neocypholaelaps apicola seem to be the only two species distributed in temperate zone of the Palaearctic region (see remark under N. favus ), whereas Neocypholaelaps novaehollandiae was originally reported from temperate region of the southern hemisphere, New Zealand. Neocypholaelaps species belong to the nectar- and pollen-feeders associated with various flowers and flower-visiting animals ( Evans 1963a, Klimov et al. 2016), namely apid bees ( Hymenoptera ) and butterflies ( Lepidoptera ). Neocypholaelaps wilsoni is reported from nasal cavities of a psittacid bird in Papua New Guinea ( Allred 1970).

Neocypholaelaps favus , originally known from Japan ( Ishikawa 1968), was firstly reported from Europe by Haragsim et al. (1978), based on findings in apiaries in the Czech Republic. There are several other reports of the species of Neocypholaelaps from Europe (all in association with Apis mellifera ), namely from Greece by Emmanouel et al. (1983), from Denmark by Schousboe (1986), from Belgium by Fain and Hosseian (2000), from Slovakia by Fenďa and Lukáš (2014), and from Hungary by Kontschán et al. (2015). The specimens from Belgium and Hungary are reported as Neocypholaelaps apicola , remaining as N. favus . There is one further finding of Neocypholaelaps reported from Europe, a species described as a new Ameroseius from Crimean Peninsula by Livshits and Mitrofanov (1975), namely Ameroseius bregetovae . It apparently belongs to the genus Neocypholaelaps although it was not found in association with flowers or flower-visiting animals.

Key to species of Neocypholaelaps occurring in Europe (females)

Partial keys to the known species of Neocypholaelaps may be found in Evans (1963a), for five species known by that time ( Neocypholaelaps ampullula , Neocypholaelaps cocos , Neocypholaelaps indicus , Neocypholaelaps novaehollandiae and Neocypholaelaps stridulans ), in Elsen (1972a), for seven species from Africa ( Neocypholaelaps breviperitrematus , Neocypholaelaps capitis , Neocypholaelaps crocisae , Neocypholaelaps leopoldi , Neocypholaelaps novus , Neocypholaelaps varipilosus and Neocypholaelaps xylocopae ), and Baker and Delfinado-Baker (1985), based on nine world species ( Neocypholaelaps ampullula , Neocypholaelaps apicola , Neocypholaelaps cocos , Neocypholaelaps favus , Neocypholaelaps hongkongensis , Neocypholaelaps indicus , Neocypholaelaps novaehollandiae , Neocypholaelaps phooni and Neocypholaelaps stridulans ). The most recent and complete key is that of Moraes and Narita (2010), including 18 species here considered to be valid members of the genus.

1	Setae j4, j6 and z5 of similar form and length as surrounding dorsal setae (except j5), apparently longer than j5	Neocypholaelaps favus Ishikawa, 1968 (Plates 64 - 66 )
-	Setae j4, j6 and z5 of similar form and length as j5, apparently shorter than surrounding dorsal setae	Neocypholaelaps apicola Delfinado-Baker & Baker, 1983

Figures

Plate 64. Neocypholaelaps favus, female, dorsal idiosoma.

Plate 66. Neocypholaelaps favus, sperm induction structures in immature female. A spermathecal ducts (tubuli annulati) B spermathecal ducts associated with sacculus foemineus.