First report of the family Gehypochthoniidae (Acari: Oribatida) from Iran

Abstract

The oribatid mite family Gehypochthoniidae has a cosmopolitan distribution, however, is absent in the Ethiopian and Antarctic regions. This family consists of only one genus, Gehypochthonius Jacot, 1936, with eight species: G. antonii Lombardini, 1962 ‘sp. inq” (distributed in Italy), G. frondifer Aoki, 1975 (Japan), G. gracilis Pankov, 2002 (East Asiatic Russia), G. marianoi Martinez and Bernava Laborde, 2000 (Argentina), G. rhadamanthus Jacot, 1936 (Semicosmopolitan), G. strenzkei Lee, 1982 (Australia), G. urticinus (Berlese, 1910) (Nearctic) and G. xarifae Strenzke, 1963 (Oriental) (Subias 2016). In this paper, we report the first record of the family Gehypochthoniidae and Gehypochthonius rhadamanthus from Iran. Soil mite fauna of the Marand region of East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, was studied during 2014. Mites were extracted using a Berlese funnel, kept in Oudemans' solution, cleared in Nesbitt's fluid, permanently mounted in Hoyer's medium on microscope slides, and examined and identified under a phase contrast Olympus BX53 microscope. Measurements were taken of all four specimens sampled and are given in micrometers (μm). General terminology from Aoki (1975) and Norton & Behan-Pelletier (2009) were used. Specimens are deposited in the Acarology laboratory, Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.