The first description of a microtrombidiid mite (Actinotrichida: Prostigmata, Microtrombidiidae) from Baltic amber, with notes on related extant genera and species.

Marta Konikiewicz,Elżbieta Sontag,Joanna Mąkol

doi:10.1007/s12542-016-0311-y

Marta Konikiewicz, Elżbieta Sontag + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-016-0311-y

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Abstract

Discovery of parasitengone mites (Acari) in the Gulf of Gdańsk deposits of Baltic amber (“Blue Earth” sediment) resulted in the first description of a fossil representative of Microtrombidiidae. The new species, based on larvae, displays affinity to recent members of Montenegtrombium Saboori and Pešić, 2006, Persianthrombium Sedghi, Saboori and Hakimitabar (in Sedghi et al. 2010) and Porttrombidium Haitlinger, 2000, known from the southwestern Palaearctic. A comparison with related genera and species places the newly described taxon in Porttrombidium (as Porttrombidium gedanense sp. nov.). Montenegtrombium is regarded as a junior synonym of Porttrombidium.

Highlights

Keywords Succinite Á Baltic amber Á ‘‘Blue Earth’’ Á Eocene Á Acari Á Parasitengona Á Gulf of Gdansk Á PolandKurzfassung Die Entdeckung von Milben aus der Gruppe der Parasitengona (Acari) in Baltischem Bernstein aus der ‘‘Blauen Erde’’ der Danziger Bucht fuhrt zur ersten Beschreibung eines fossilen Vertreters der Microtrombidiidae
The richest and the oldest deposits are located within the Gulf of Gdansk, at the mouth of the hypothetical Eridanus river, which brought the resin from the primary amber forest (Weitschat and Wichard 2002)
Recent studies on the taxonomic grouping of zooinclusions in randomly selected pieces of Baltic amber revealed that mites, constituting more than 20 % of all zooinclusions, are one of the best represented groups in succinite, giving precedence only to Diptera, which account for ca. 40 % of inclusions (Sontag 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Keywords Succinite Á Baltic amber Á ‘‘Blue Earth’’ Á Eocene Á Acari Á Parasitengona Á Gulf of Gdansk Á Poland. The first mention of terrestrial parasitengone amber inclusion originates from 1845 (Berendt 1845; Dunlop et al 2015; Judson 2012), and relatively few species have been described till (Dunlop et al 2015; Konikiewicz and Makol 2014; Bartel et al 2015). A summary of hitherto knowledge of fossil terrestrial parasitengones has been recently provided by Bartel et al (2015). It is the first representative of Microtrombidiidae found in the fossil record

Materials and methods

Findings

Discussion