Two new feather mite species of the genus Montesauria Oudemans (Analgoidea: Proctophyllodidae) from thrushes (Passeriformes: Turdidae) in the Indian Subcontinent

Ioana Cristina Constantinescu,D Khlur B Mukhim,Oana Paula Popa,Costică Adam,Luis Ovidiu Popa,Ioana Cobzaru

doi:10.24349/acarologia/20184294

Ioana Cristina Constantinescu, D Khlur B Mukhim + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24349/acarologia/20184294

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Abstract

Two new feather mite species of the genus Montesauria Oudemans, 1905, collected from thrushes (Turdidae) in India, are described: Montesauria hernandesi sp. n. from Turdus dissimilis Blyth, 1847 and M. caerulea sp. n. from Myophonus caeruleus (Scopoli, 1786). Both species belong to the merulae species group, being morphologically closest to other two species of the genus, previously described from birds of the family Turdidae in Asia (Japan): M. sibirica Kuroki, Nagahori and Mironov, 2006 and M. aurea Kuroki, Nagahori and Mironov, 2006, respectively. The new species most clearly differ from those described in Japan by the dorsal shield ornamentation. In both sexes of M. hernandesi sp. n., the ornamentation of the prodorsal and hysteronotal shields is represented by round and ovate lacunae, and the ornamentation of the lobar shield of females has few ovate lacunae. In both sexes of M. caerulea sp. n., the ornamentation of the hysteronotal shield is very particular, with large and almost round lacunae in the anterior half and small ovate lacunae in the posterior half.

Highlights

12 species of Montesauria have been described from Asia: 8 from Vietnam (Gaud and Petitot 1948, Mironov et al 2012, Mironov and Tostenkov 2013), 2 from Japan (Kuroki et al 2006), 1 from Taiwan (Sugimoto 1941) and 1 from Indonesia (Trouessart 1885)
The description of the new species of Montesauria is given according to the current format used for species of pterodectine mites (Mironov and Fain 2003, Mironov 2006, Valim and Hernandes 2006, Mironov et al 2008, 2010, 2012, Mironov and Tolstenikov 2013, Hernandes and OConnor 2017) and the measuring techniques of particular structures used were described by Mironov and Proctor (2009)
Montesauria hernandesi sp. n. clearly differs from M. sibirica by the following features: in both sexes, the ornamentation of prodorsal and hysteronotal shields is represented by ovate lacunae, in males, tarsus IV has a bidentate apex; in females, the lobar shield bears a few ovate lacunae in the anterior part, epimerites I are fused into a Y, the secondary spermaducts are longer than the distance between the large bulb-shaped enlargement of primary spermaduct and the small bulge near the head of spermatheca

Summary

Introduction

The feather mite genus Montesauria Oudemans, 1905 (Analgoidea: Proctophyllodidae) is the species-richest genus of the subfamily Pterodectinae and currently includes 62 species distributed mostly in the Old World (Till 1954, 1957, Gaud 1957, Gaud and Mouchet 1957, Mironov and Kopij 1996a, 1996b, 1997, Mironov and Fain 2003, Mironov 2006, 2008, Kuroki et al 2006, Hernandes et al 2010, Mironov et al 2010, 2012, Mironov and Tostenkov 2013, Hernandes and OConnor 2017).

Results

Conclusion