<p class="Body"><strong>Integrating a morphological description with DNA barcode data of a new species of the genus <em>Pimeliaphilus </em>(Acariformes: Pterygosomatidae) with the analysis of its host specificity and a key to the genus</strong></p>

Abstract

Pimeliaphilus hemidactyli sp. nov., a new species of the mite genus Pimeliaphilus Trägårdh (Acariformes: Pterygosomatidae), is described from four host species of Hemidactylus: H. murrayi Gleadow (type host), H. frenatus Duméril & Bibron, H. parvimaculatus Deraniyagala and H. leschenaultii Duméril & Bibron (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from India. P. hemidactyli sp. nov. is the most similar to P. sharifi Abdussalam, 1941 and P. insignis (Berlese, 1892); this species can be distinguished from P. sharifi by the presence of 11 dorsal setae on the idiosoma, the absence of leg setae v”GII, v”TrIII and the presence of v’TrIV, and from P. sharifi by the presence of 11 dorsal setae on idiosoma, 1 pair of genital setae and the absence of coxal setae 4c. The standard morphological description of the new species is supplemented with sequencing data for cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and nuclear ribosomal genes: 18S rDNA and hypervariable region D2 of nuclear 28S rRNA. The present study also addresses specialisation amongst Pimeliaphilus hemidactyli sp. nov. using two measures of host specificity: (1) the number of host species used by the mites species at the study area; and (2) a measure that considers the taxonomic distinctness of the hosts used by the mite, weighted for its prevalence in the different hosts. The results of this study indicate that this species is highly host specific (a stenoxenous species) and that, in the presence of coexisting gecko species, it prefers Murray’s House gecko (H. murrayi) as a host (prevalence of 41%). A historical review of the genus is presented and a key to the genus is constructed.