Scarabacariphis Mašán, 1994

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 : 77-78

Genus Scarabacariphis Mašán

Scarabacariphis Mašán, 1994a: 6 . Type species Scarabacariphis grandisternalis Mašán, 1994a (= Alliphis ankavani Arutunian 1992a ), by original designation.

Diagnosis (adults). Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 139). Idiosoma dorso-ventrally flattened, oval to oblong (the more elongated shape illustrated in Fig. 141 is not compressed, and more accurate and typical). Dorsal shield entire, suboval, completely covering dorsal idiosoma, with inconspicuous flat vertex, not fused to peritrematal shields, with fine reticulation over whole surface, and 30 pairs of setae. Dorsal setae all, smooth and needlelike, medial and posteromedial setae shorter than anterior and marginal setae; j1 slightly lanceolate, often with ventral position on vertex ( Fig. 143); z1 minute and thin, inserted on ventral vertex. Sexual dimorphism of dorsal chaetotaxy absent. Some dorsal pore-like structures slightly hypertrophied, suboval, conspicuous.

Ventral idiosoma ( Figs 140, 141). Presternal platelets small, weakly sclerotised, transversely striate ( Fig. 144). Sternal shield strongly sclerotised, relatively large, mostly smooth, with three pairs of setae and two pairs of pores; first pair of pores small, slit-like, oriented obliquely. Endopodal platelets II–III completely fused to sternal shield. Endopodal platelets III–IV free in soft integument. Metasternal platelets, very small, each bearing metasternal seta st4 and adjacent pore. Epigynal shield smooth, with a pair of genital setae; genital pores placed in soft integument; post-genital sclerites absent. Anal shield subtriangular, with three circumanal setae; post-anal seta slightly longer than adanals. Exopodal platelets I and II absent, exopodals III and IV, narrow and curved. Metapodal platelets narrow, elongate. Peritrematal shields not fused to dorsal shield ( Fig. 142), not developed along the whole peritreme, with short tapered post-stigmatic section not reaching beyond posterior margin of coxae IV; peritremes long, anterior ends reaching anterior margin of coxa I; anteriormost section of peritremes without peritrematal shield. Lateral and opisthogastric integument simply striated, with ten pairs of setae in female. In male, separate sterno-genital and anal shields present.

Gnathosoma . Palptarsus without paired macroeupathidia. Cheliceral segments as in Fig. 141, movable digit with one robust subdistal tooth ( Fig. 79). Epistome with elongated central projection and wing-like lateral elements, densely serrated on distal margin ( Fig. 102).

Legs. Setation of legs I-II-III-IV: coxae 2-2-2-1, trochanters 6-5-5-5, femora 13-11-6-6, genua 11-11-8-7 and tibiae 11-10-7-7 ( Table 3). Male legs not spurred.

Notes on the genus. The main diagnostic feature for distinguishing of Scarabacariphis from the related genera Alliphis and Pelethiphis seems to be the reduction of the peritrematal shields and their separation from the dorsal shield ( Fig. 142). In Alliphis , there is a compact and well developed dorsal-peritrematal complex in the anterolateral region of the idiosoma ( Fig. 40). For other differential characters see for example couplet 15 in the key to genera for females. Scarabacariphis is a monotypic genus presently known from Slovakia and Armenia. The insufficiently described species Pelethiphis balachovi Arutunian 1992a , known from Turkmenistan, could be another member of the genus Scarabacariphis .