Myrmozercon Berlese

Joharchi, Omid, Halliday, Bruce, Saboori, Alireza & Kamali, Karim, 2011, New species and new records of mites of the family Laelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) associated with ants in Iran, Zootaxa 2972, pp. 22-36 : 28-29

Genus Myrmozercon Berlese

Myrmozercon Berlese, 1902: 699 . Type species Myrmozercon brevipes Berlese, 1902 , by monotypy.

Myrmonyssus Berlese, 1903: 16 . Type species Myrmonyssus diplogenius Berlese, 1903 , designated by Berlese, 1904 (synonymy by Rosario & Hunter, 1988).

Myrmonyssus (Laelaspulus) Berlese, 1904: 437 . Type species Myrmozercon acuminatus Berlese, 1903 , by original designation (synonymy by Shaw & Seeman, 2009).

Parabisternalis Ueckermann & Loots, 1995: 35 . Type species Parabisternalis yemeni Ueckermann & Loots, 1995 , by original designation (synonymy by Shaw & Seeman, 2009).

Diagnosis. Laelapidae with the dorsal shield oval to subcircular, usually with posterior margin reduced or truncate; deutosternal groove with more than seven multidenticulate rows of denticles; chelicerae usually edentate, rarely with weak teeth, fixed digit reduced; palp trochanter with one or two setae, v2 sometimes present; tarsi I–IV with well-developed ambulacral pads, claws usually absent; genu I and tibia I usually with three ventral setae, occasionally two; peritreme short, not extending past anterior margin of coxa II.

Notes on the genus. The diagnosis of Myrmozercon used here is based on that of Shaw & Seeman (2009). The genus Myrmozercon includes about 20 described species from Europe, Australia, Africa, and North America ( Rosario & Hunter, 1988; Walter, 2003; Shaw & Seeman, 2009; Trach & Khaustov, 2011). All species are associated with ants, except for one quarantine interception on plant material ( Hunter & Hunter, 1963). Myrmozercon robustisetae Rosario & Hunter, 1988 was described from a termite nest, but this species is now known to belong to the termitophilous genus Urozercon Berlese, 1901 (in Berlese & Leonardi, 1901) ( OConnor & Klimov, 2004). Shaw & Seeman (2009) synonymised Parabisternalis Ueckermann & Loots, 1995 with Myrmozercon , and included the subgenus Myrmonyssus (Laelaspulus) Berlese, 1904 as a synonym of Myrmozercon . We anticipate that M. yemeni Ueckermann & Loots, 1995 will be found associated with ants, once its biology is studied. The only species known from western Asia and eastern Europe are M. ovatum Karawajew, 1909 from Turkmenistan and M. tauricus Trach & Khaustov, 2011 , from Ukraine. The genus is now recorded in Iran for the first time.