Myrmozercon tauricus Trach & Khaustov

Joharchi, Omid & Moradi, Maryam, 2013, Review of the genus Myrmozercon Berlese (Acari: Laelapidae), with description of two new species from Iran, Zootaxa 3686 (2), pp. 244-254 : 250

Myrmozercon tauricus Trach & Khaustov

Myrmozercon tauricus Trach & Khaustov, 2011: 1 .

Specimens examined. Two females, Iran, Damavand mountain, 35°52' N, 52°07' E, alt. 2422 m, 18 May 2013, O. Joharchi coll., clinging to the head of Crematogaster schmidti (Mayr) (Formicidae) in the bark of grapevine.

Notes. M. tauricus was described from Ukraine ( Trach & Khaustov, 2011). It has been found in the nest of Crematogaster schmidti (Mayr, 1853) in the bark of Pinus pallasiana D. Don , and is now recorded in Iran for the first time, from the same host in the bark of grape. Our specimens agree very well with the description given by Trach & Khaustov (2011). The dorsal shield has 34 pairs of short serrated setae. Trach & Khaustov (2011) described epistome as smooth but in our specimens the epistome is irregularly denticulate and all the dorsal shield setae are the same length (in M. tauricus some setae longer or smaller than others), but we regard our specimens as the same species.