Alliphis siculus (Oudemans)

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 : 33

Alliphis siculus (Oudemans)

Eviphis siculus Oudemans, 1905: 7 ; Oudemans, 1915: 150; Castagnoli & Pegazzano, 1985: 380; Berlese, 1916a: 67. Copriphis (Pelethiphis) crinitus var. curtipilus Berlese, 1911: 186 ; Berlese, 1916a: 67. Synonymy by Berlese (1916a). Alliphis siculus .— Halliday, 2008: 58.

Remarks. Alliphis siculus has not been recorded from Slovakia, and is known only from Italy. However, we here take the opportunity to further clarify the identity of this species, following the examination of type specimens in the Berlese Acaroteca, Firenze. Berlese (1916a) synonymised Copriphis (Pelethiphis) crinitus var. curtipilus with Alliphis siculus . One of us (PM) has examined Berlese's slides of Copriphis (Pelethiphis) crinitus var. curtipilus (slides numbered 4/12 and 123/47). The slides contain five specimens (two females, two males and one deutonymph) collected from Scarabaeus semipunctatus in Italy (Pompeii, San Vincenzo, Pisa). Berlese did not designate types for C. (P.) crinitus var. curtipilus , and slide 123/47 is labelled Copriphis (Pelethiphis) elongatus (!). The specimens have deteriorated and are barely observable, but the dorsal shield of the specimens that can be examined on slide 4/12 have one unpaired J seta between dorsal setae J2 and J5, and the marginal setae are distinctly longer than the medial setae. Halliday (2008) found an additional pair of J setae between J2 and J 5 in the type specimens of Alliphis siculus collected from the same beetle host in Sicily. We can therefore confirm the synonymy of C. (P.) crinitus var. curtipilus with A. siculus by and therefore confirm the existence of A. siculus on the Italian mainland as well as in Sicily.