Paraleius Trave , 1960

Knee, Wayne, 2017, A new Paraleius species (Acari, Oribatida, Scheloribatidae) associated with bark beetles (Curculionidae, Scolytinae) in Canada, ZooKeys 667, pp. 51-65 : 52-53

Genus Paraleius Trave, 1960

Type species.

Paraleius (= Oribella ) leontonycha (Berlese, 1910)

Revised diagnosis.

Rostrum extended medially, forming narrow point; anterior border of notogaster convex; prodorsal setae long, thickened, attenuate, barbed; bothridium inserted dorsolaterally, close to lamella; bothridial seta capitate or fusiform; bothridium covered with numerous spicules; prolamella present; sublamella and translamella absent; pteromorphs absent; exobothridial seta (ex) medium sized and barbed; humeral porose organ (Ah) expressed as saccule; four pairs of saccules on notogaster; Ten pairs of medium sized notogastral setae; shallow sternal groove on ventral surface; solenidia of tibiae III and IV microcephalic (rounded vesicle) or not; eupathidia p of tarsus I smooth, seta p of tarsus II–IV with small bristles along one side; seta s of tarsus I with large barbs along ventral side, not eupathidial; leg pretarsi monodactylous or hetero-tridactylous with large curved median claw, lateral claws (if present) long and thin, resembling setae.

Remarks.

Travé (1960) described Paraleius as closely resembling Hemileius Berlese, 1916 with the distinction of the following characters: rostrum extended medially, forming narrow point; bothridial seta capitate; sublamella absent; seta ex medium sized and barbed; Ah expressed as saccule; heterodactyl claws with pronounced central claw; solenidia of tibiae III and IV microcephalic. Travé’s diagnosis lacked a few additional characters which have been included in the revised diagnosis above: notogaster anterior margin convex, bothridium inserted close to the lamella, numerous spicules on bothridium. To accommodate the new species herein described the description for three character states from Travé’s original diagnosis were modified: bothridial seta shape, pretarsal dactyly, and solenidia of tibiae III and IV microcephalic or not.

While Weigmann (1969) treated Paraleius , Metaleius and Siculobata as distinct genera, he later (2006) considered Paraleius and Metaleius to be junior synonyms of Siculobata based on a shared lamellar complex. However, this complex is not identical: Siculobata has a rudimentary sublamella, while Paraleius and Metaleius lack a sublamella. The synonymization of these genera also overlooks several other distinct character states shared by Paraleius and Metaleius that Siculobata does not possess. These include: rostrum with narrow medial point, anterior margin of notogaster convex, seta ex medium sized and barbed, Ah expressed as saccule, and bothridial seta inserted dorsolaterally close to lamella. Fredes and Martinez (2013) did not follow Weigmann’s (2006) proposed synonymy and provided a diagnosis for Siculobata sensu stricto that excludes Paraleius and Metaleius . Based on their concepts and on the aforementioned shared character states, I also reject the synonymization of Paraleius with Siculobata , but synonymize Metaleius and Paraleius . Each of the latter genera has been monotypic to this point, so the revised diagnosis for Paraleius is based on Paraleius leontonycha , Paraleius leahae sp. n., and Paraleius strenzkei ( Travé, 1960), comb. n.

In his checklist of the world oribatid mite fauna, Subías (2004) placed Wallworkiella Hammer, 1979 as a subgenus of Paraleius , with the single species Paraleius (Wallworkiella) nasalis (Hammer, 1979). No explanation or justification was provided by Subías. In an unpublished online update ( Subías 2016), possibly following Weigmann’s classification, he instead placed Wallworkiella as a subgenus of Siculobata . However, Wallworkiella differs from Paraleius by having five pairs of notogastral sacculi, homo-tridactylous tarsi, and inflated tarsal pulvilli. Additionally, Wallworkiella does not belong to Siculobata based upon the concept of Fredes and Martinez (2013). Clearly, the generic and species level relationships of Scheloribatidae require further research and revisions, but the demotion of Wallworkiella to subgeneric rank under either Paraleius or Siculobata is unsupported.