New record of the family Nematalycidae (Acari: Sarcoptiformes: Endeostigmata) for the fauna of Iran

Abstract

Diagnosis A highly elongate idiosoma (in adults ≥ 6 times width when fully extended), lined with annuli, with the soft and flexible integument between successive annuli; a much greater distance between legs II and III relative to legs I and II; the genitalia positioned directly behind legs IV and far from the anal opening; a long posterior region behind the genitalia; prodorsum without trichobothria and naso, with fewer than four pairs of setae; the rostral seta is unpaired if present (Bolton et al. 2014, 2015). The Nematalycidae is a widespread and unusual family of vermiform soil mites that inhabit mineral regolith (sands and mineral soil horizons). The nematalycid mites appear to be exclusively thelytokous. These highly elongated mites move around like worms by extending and contracting their bodies via a combination of hydraulic pressure and a continuous muscle layer underlying a thin epidermis. Their unique physiology among mites and their several idiosyncratic features are almost certainly an adaptation for living in small interstitial spaces in mineral soil and sand (Haupt and Coineau 1999; Bolton et al. 2015).