Pediculaster amerahae Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984

Khaustov, Alexandr A., 2011, Nomenclature changes in the mite families Neopygmephoridae and Pygmephoridae (Acari: Heterostigmata: Pygmephoroidea) with redescription of two little known species, Zootaxa 2809, pp. 47-57 : 52

Pediculaster amerahae Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984

Pediculaster crassipedis Sevastianov and Chydyrov, 1994: 9 , fig. 7 syn. nov.

Sevastianov & Abo-Korah (1984) described Pediculaster amerahae Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984 from Egypt. Later, Sevastianov et al. (1994) described Pediculaster crassipedis Sevastianov and Chydyrov, 1994 from Turkmenistan. I examined holotypes of both species and revealed their conspecificity. Therefore I consider P. c r a s - sipedis syn. nov. as a junior synonym of P. amerahae .

Remarks. Pediculaster crassipedis was described with some inaccuracies. In the original description of this species setae ps 1 and ps 2 are short, subequal but much shorter than ps 3; in fact setae ps 2 are much longer than short ps 1 and ps 3. Besides, in the original description setae v 1 are said to be situated anteromedially to the stigmata, while in fact they are situated just lateral to the stigmata. The redescription of P. amerahae based on the type specimens and new material of this species from Iran is now being in preparation by Dr H. R. Hajiqanbar (Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran) and will be described elsewhere.

Material examined. Phoretic female holotype of Pediculaster amerahae Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984 , slide 1222, EGYPT: vicinity of Shibin-el-Kom, soil under cabbage, 15 December 1980, coll. S.M. Abo-Korah; phoretic female holotype of Pediculaster crassipedis Sevastianov and Chydyrov, 1994 , slide 353, TURKMENI- STAN, Chardzou distr., Deynauz reg., settl. Moskovsk, soil under cotton, 2 July 1987, coll. P.R. Chydyrov.