Insectolaelaps Shcherbak, 1980

Insectolaelaps Shcherbak, 1980

Insectolaelaps Shcherbak, 1980: 192 .

Type species: Dendrolaelaps armatus Hirschmann, 1960 , by original designation (only armatus group).

Dendrolaelaps (Insectolaelaps) .— Hirschmann & Wiśniewski, 1982: 31.

Insectolaelaps .— Karg, 1993: 368.

non Dendrolaelaps (Ipidodendrolaelaps) Hirschmann & Wiśniewski, 1982: 38 . Synonymy by Karg, 1993: 368.

Taxonomic notes

The genus Insectolaelaps is a rather small group of digamasellid mites distributed in the Holarctic, currently comprising 15 known species from Europe (10 spp.), Asia (3 spp.) and North America (2 spp.), mainly found in saproxylic habitats, especially in subcortical spaces associated with galleries of bark- and wood-boring beetles. The phoretic activity of their deutonymphs is common in many xylophagous beetles, especially in the scolytine curculionids ( Hirschmann and Wiśniewski 1982).

Insectolaelaps was originally described by Shcherbak (1980) as a genus of Rhodacaridae Oudemans and later treated as a subgenus of Dendrolaelaps Halbert by Hirschmann & Wiśniewski (1982). Karg (1993) and Castilho (2012) considered Insectolaelaps as a separate genus of Dendrolaelapinae Hirschmann and Digamasellidae Evans , respectively (both as equivalent taxa), with Ipidodendrolaelaps Hirschmann & Wiśniewski as a conspecific taxon, whose species were also included in the genus by Shcherbak (1980), as species of the quadrisetus group sensu Lindquist, 1975. In my opinion, the separate position of Ipidodendrolaelaps, including the four species known from the Holarctic ( Castilho 2012), is justified and should be considered a valid taxon in future taxonomic revisions.

The original description of the genus by Shcherbak (1980) does not need to be fundamentally changed here, with the exception of the specific chaetotaxy of genu III. Thus, the concept of Insectolaelaps used here is mainly based on the following character states: (1) sperm induction system of females with highly modified genital structures shaped as small and paired spherical organs, usually bearing short hyaline appendages (tubuli annulati, sacculus foemineus or tubes in proximal leg segments absent); (2) female genital structures associated with coxae IV; (3) movable digit of chelicerae with at least five teeth in females; (4) genu III with only one ventral seta (pv1 absent); (5) posterior row of denticles distinctly wider than preceding rows, all rows with many denticles; (6) legs IV spurred in males [except in Insectolaelaps zvoleniensis (Wiśniewski & Hirschmann) ]; (7) all podonotal setae on shield surface in adults.