Cosmolaelaps subacutiscutus Bai & Wang, 2005

Nemati, Alireza & Gwiazdowicz, Dariusz J., 2016, Description of a new species of Cosmolaelaps Berlese and the male of C. brevipedestra (Karg) from Iran, with notes on some other species of Cosmolaelaps Berlese (Acari: Laelapidae), Zootaxa 4066 (5), pp. 535-551 : 545

Cosmolaelaps subacutiscutus Bai & Wang, 2005

Cosmolaelaps subacutiscutus Bai & Wang, 2005: 26 .

Cosmolaelaps subacutiscutus .— Ren & Guo, 2008: 328; Kazemi & Rajaei, 2013: 80; Moreira et al., 2014: 320; Moreira, 2014: 231.

Hypoaspis (Cosmolaelaps) subacutiscutus .— Bai & Ma, 2012: 557.

Notes. These two species have been reported from China ( Teng, 1982; Bai & Wang, 2005) and Iran ( Kavianpour et al., 2011; Soleimani & Joharchi, 2012; Kazemi & Rajaei, 2013). There are apparent similarities between C. acutiscutus , C. subacutiscutus and C. angustiscutatus . Cosmolaelaps angustiscutatus is recognised by several characters including: scimitar-shaped setae on dorsal shield with distinct knob at their base; the presence of abrupt curvature at the level of seta Z3 on the dorsal shield; and about eight to ten pairs of setae between genital and anal shields ( Willmann, 1951; Lapina, 1976; Karg, 1993; Beaulieu, 2009; personal observation of Karg collection specimens, 2014: see above). The abrupt curvature at the level of Z 3 in the dorsal shield, the presence of unpaired dorsal setae, a small inward curve in the lateral margins of the sternal shield (this character was observed in specimens of C. angustiscutatus in Karg collection, Berlin) and the presence of ten pairs of setae between the genital and anal shields could be considered as the main diagnostic characters of C. acutiscutus and C. subacutiscutus ( Teng, 1982; Bai & Wang, 2005). Bai & Ma (2012) separated these species only based on dorsal setae length, which are slightly longer in C. subacutiscutus . Except for the unpaired dorsal setae, these characters could be observed in C. angustiscutatus . Our observation of C. brevipedestra as well as other studies such as Strong & Halliday (1994), Faraji & Halliday (2009) and Beaulieu (2009) have shown that the unpaired setae have no taxonomic value for separating species of Gaeolaelaps and Cosmolaelaps . By comparing the descriptions and figures of these species we could find no distinguishing authentic morphological differences, therefore, C. acutiscutus and C. subacutiscutus are suspected to be junior synonyms of C. angustiscutatus .