Rafaphis microsternalis Skorupski & Błaszak

Mašán, Peter & Halliday, Bruce, 2010, Review of the European genera of Eviphididae (Acari: Mesostigmata) and the species occurring in Slovakia 2585, Zootaxa 2585, pp. 1-122 : 74-75

Rafaphis microsternalis Skorupski & Błaszak

( Figs 38, 39, 135, 136)

Rafaphis microsternalis Skorupski & Błaszak, 1997: 136 .

Amendments to diagnosis (female). Dorsal idiosoma. Dorsal shield 496 µm long, 339 µm wide. Vertical setae j1 23–26 µm long.

Ventral idiosoma. Sternal shield 76 µm long, 41 µm wide, epigynal shield 101 µm long, 63 µm wide, anal shield 63 µm long, 113 µm wide.

Remarks. Only two specimens of this species have been collected, both females from the Carpathian Mountains in Poland and Slovakia. This rare species has been described by Skorupski & Błaszak (1997) based only on the holotype found in the Pieniny Mts., Western Carpathians, in South Poland, from moss on limestone. The Slovakian female was found in a sample of leaf litter and wood detritus taken from virgin beech forest in the Eastern Carpathians. It was originally misidentified as Crassicheles concentricus . It appears to be an edaphic associate of litter and soil substrates.

Occurrence in Slovakia. Revised published data. Bukovské Vrchy Hills: 1 ♀, 21 September 1998, Kalná Roztoka, Havešová [6999] (published as Crassicheles concentricus by Fenďa & Mašán 2003) .