Afrocypholaelaps Elsen, 1972

Masan, Peter, 2017, A revision of the family Ameroseiidae (Acari, Mesostigmata), with some data on Slovak fauna, ZooKeys 704, pp. 1-228 : 1

Genus Afrocypholaelaps Elsen, 1972

Afrocypholaelaps Elsen, 1972b: 159. Type species: Neocypholaelaps africana Evans, 1963a, by original designation.

Diagnosis (female).

Dorsal shield weakly sclerotised, smooth medially and reticulate laterally, oblong, with 29 pairs of subequal setae. Dorsal setae including j1 short and needle-like, mostly smooth, sometimes delicately pilose to serrate. Setae st1 and st2 on sternal shield, st3 on small pseudo-metasternal platelets and st4 on soft integument. Sternal and epigynal shield relatively long and narrow, smooth and unornamented on surface. Epigynal shield with anterior hyaline portion produced into a prominent cusp reaching the level of st2; genital poroids on soft integument, outside the shield. Metapodal platelets absent. Anal shield relatively small, subcircular, bearing three circum-anal setae. Peritrematal shields or peritremes with anterior ends free, not fused to dorsal shield. Opisthogastric soft integument with six pairs of setae (JV1-JV5, ZV2). Soft striate integument smooth, not incrusted with sclerotic denticles or tubercles. Corniculi slender and convergent, surrounded by hyaline membranes, with undivided and pointed apex. Fixed digit of chelicera unidentate, having hyaline lobed appendage; movable digit edentate, well hooked distally. Epistome with curved and denticulate anterior margin. Palptarsal apotele two-tined. Femur II with two ventral setae, genua II-III and tibiae II-III each with one anterolateral and one posterolateral seta. Tarsi I-IV each with well developed empodium but reduced claws (the claws normal in males and developmental stages). Insemination apparatus with spermathecal ducts entering sacculus foemineus through a common neck-like process of the sacculus.

Remark.

The genus Afrocypholaelaps is distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Old World and Oceania (Australia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii Islands, Japan, Taiwan, Saint Helena Island, Angola and Madagascar). Mites of this monobasic genus live on flowers of various plants where they probably feed on pollen and nectar. Phoresy of females is reported from European honey bee ( Apis mellifera ), bees and wasps of various apoid genera ( Meliponula , Ceratina , Hylaeus and Chlorion ), and other flower-visiting insects ( Lepidoptera ).