Some free-living laelapid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata: Laelapidae) from Tristan da Cunha and Nightingale Islands, with description of a new species of Gaeolaelaps Evans amp; Till (Acari: Laelapidae) and the first afrotropical record of the genus Nidilaelaps Shaw.

Abstract

This paper reports on four species of free-living mites of the family Laelapidae from Tristan da Cunha and Nightingale Islands: Cosmolaelaps claviger (Berlese), Gaeolaelaps aculeifer (Canestrini), G. furcatus sp. nov., and Nidilaelaps annectans (Womersley). The new species has the unique character states of the paradactyli on pretarsi IIIV being very elongated and the pulvillar lobe well developed in shape of a fork on ambulacra IIIV. The genus Nidilaelaps Shaw is here reported for the first time from Afrotropical realm.