Platyseius Berlese

Kazemi, Shahrooz, Payandeh, Majid & Saberi, Sepideh, 2016, A new species of Platyseius Berlese (Acari: Mesostigmata: Blattisociidae) from Iran, and a key to the world species of the genus, Zootaxa 4139 (4), pp. 566-574 : 567

Genus Platyseius Berlese

Lasioseius (Platyseius) Berlese, 1916: 42 . Type species: Lasioseius (Platyseius) capillatus Berlese, 1916 , by original designation (= Hypoaspis subglabra Oudemans, 1903 ).

Paraseius sensu Halbert, 1915: 74 (not Paraseius Trägårdh, 1910). Type species Ameroseius italicus Berlese, 1905 , designated by Halbert, 1915, invalid designation ( Lindquist and Evans, 1965).

Plesiosejus Evans & Hyatt, 1960: 42 . Type species Ameroseius italicus Berlese, 1905 , by original designation. Synonymy by Lindquist & Evans (1965).

Note. About 20 species have been described under the genus Platyseius , of which some species were transferred to the genera Cheiroseius and Lasioseius Berlese, 1916 , or synonymised with other species (e.g. in Evans, 1958; Karg, 1981; Halliday et al., 1998; Christian & Karg, 2006). Recently, de Moraes et al. (2016) considered Platyseius incisus (Willmann, 1938) and P. tendens (Schrank, 1803) as valid species. We therefore treat P. tendens as senior synonym of P. subglaber ( Oudemans, 1903) . On the other hand, Willmann (1938) established Episeius major incisus as a new subspecies only based on one pair of small notches between poroids iv2 and insertion of setae st3, but the senior author of the current paper (SK) has seen similar notches in some species of Ascidae and Eviphididae as an intraspecific variation. Therefore we consider Episeius major incisus as junior synonym of P. major .

We agree with de Moraes et al. (2016) to exclude P. leleupi Van Driel, Loots & Marias, 1977 from Platyseius based on the following characters in its original description: peritremes narrow, without poststigmatic extension; hypostomal setae h1 and internal setae of palptrochanter slender; median lobe of pulvilli on legs II–IV broad and rounded apically; fixed digit of chelicera without deep subapical receptacle for receiving apex of movable chela; dorsal shield with only 19 pairs of setae; J5 well developed, elongated; deutosternal groove with six rows of denticles; epigynal shield broadened posteriorly. These characters are similar to those in members of the family Podocinidae , but there is no information about tarsus and pretarsus of legs I as well as the number of tines on the palptarsus apotele. We therefore consider P. leleupi as a species incertae sedis.