Abstract
Two new species of the microdispid mites (Acari: Microdispidae) phoretic on Lucanus ibericus are described from Iran: Premicrodispus gorganiensis Rahiminejad and Seyedein sp. nov. and Neomicrodispus lucani Rahiminejad and Seyedein sp. nov. The mites were collected from forests with Hornbeam trees (Carpinus spp.) and Oak trees (Quercus spp.) in Gorgan, northern Iran. The distribution of the heterostigmatic mites on lucanid beetles is reviewed. Also, a key to species of the Neomicrodispus is provided.
Highlights
Many of heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata) prefer to be free-living, almost all of them take advantage of phoresy in some periods of their life to distribute and establish their populations (Hermann et al 1970; Kaliszewski et al 1995)
Heterostigmata have a wide range of associations with arthropods, including predation, parasitism and mutualism; so that different host–symbiont interactions could lead to speciation (Okabe et al 2012)
During a survey on mite fauna of the cohort Heterostigmata associated with insects in Golestan province, Northern Iran, in summer 2019, two new species of the genera Premicrodispus and Neomicrodispus phoretic on beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) were collected by light trap
Summary
Many of heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata) prefer to be free-living, almost all of them take advantage of phoresy in some periods of their life to distribute and establish their populations (Hermann et al 1970; Kaliszewski et al 1995). The four families Microdispidae, Scutacaridae, Neopygmephoridae and Pygmephoridae constitute the largest superfamily in Heterostigmata (Acari: Prostigmata), known as Pygmephoroidea (Khaustov 2004). The least diverse family in the superfamily, Microdispidae Cross, 1965, includes 28 described genera and more than 120 species (Khaustov and Minor 2020) that are mostly fungivorous, inhabiting soil, litter, mosses or decaying plant material, and some are in relation with various arthropods by phoresy or parastitism with the most prevalent hosts for this family being beetles and ants (Kaliszewski et al 1995; Walter et al 2009; Hajiqanbar et al 2012a; Rahiminejad et al 2015a; Khaustov and Minor 2020). Six genera and 23 species have been recorded from Iran (Hajiqanbar and Sobhi 2018)
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