Aniacarus Gaud and Atyeo, 1990

Mironov, Sergey V., Hernandes, Fabio A. & Pedroso, Luiz Gustavo A., 2015, New feather mites of the genera Aniacarus and Aniibius (Acariformes: Pterolichidae) from two cuckoo species (Cuculiformes: Cuculidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 3937 (1), pp. 103-126 : 107

Genus Aniacarus Gaud and Atyeo, 1990

Type species: Aniacarus mexicanus Gaud and Atyeo, 1990 , by original designation.

The genus was established for a single species, Aniacarus mexicanus Gaud and Atyeo, 1990 , from the Groovebilled Ani Crotophaga sulcirostris in Mexico ( Gaud & Atyeo 1990). The feature that most clearly differentiates Aniacarus from the the similar genus Coccylichus Gaud, 1966 from African cuckoos of the genus Cercococcyx Cabanis (Cuculinae) , is a relatively wide and short idiosoma in both sexes (length/width ratio 1.4–1.8 vs 2 in Coccylichus ) and presence of an entire hysteronotal shield in females (vs transversely split at level of setae e1) ( Gaud 1966; Gaud & Atyeo 1990, 1996). The latter authors ( Gaud & Atyeo 1990) also mentioned setiform setae c3 among the features that discriminate between Aniacarus and Coccylichus ; however, our study shows that the state of this character varies within the genus Aniacarus from filiform to spiculiform and narrowly lanceolate. In the present paper we describe four new species of Aniacarus found on two species of cuckoos of the subfamily Crotophaginae in Brazil. It is interesting to note that three out of four species described herein are associated with the same cuckoo host, Guira guira , and can inhabit one bird individual simultaneously.