Euandrolaelaps karawaiewi (Berlese, 1904)

Euandrolaelaps karawaiewi (Berlese, 1904)

Laelaps (Androlaelaps) karawaiewi Berlese, 1904b: 432 .

Androlaelaps karawaiewi .— Bregetova, 1956: 82; Mrciak, 1963: 450; Shcherbak, 1969: 79; Ma,

1995: 159.

Hypoaspis karawaiewi .— Costa, 1968: 7; Koyumdjieva, 1981: 78.

Hypoaspis (Euandrolaelaps) karawaiewi .— Bregetova, 1977: 530.

Hypoaspis (Pneumolaelaps) karawaiewi .— Karg, 1979: 90; 1993: 149.

Pneumolaelaps karawaiewi .— Farrier & Hennessey, 1993: 86.

Euandrolaelaps karawaiewi .— Walter, 1988: 312; Hasanvand et al., 2014: 2868; Moraes et al., 2022: 238.

Specimens examined

One female, Rajhana , Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan, 20 April 2014, soil core, undisturbed soil, A.K. Khan coll. ; 1 female, Basti Budhan , Pakistan, 28 April 2014, soil core, undisturbed soil, A.K. Khan coll.

Notes

Bregetova (1977) placed this species in Hypoaspis (Euandrolaelaps) Bregetova, 1977 . Karg (1979, 1993) synonymised Euandrolaelaps under Alloparasitus Berlese, 1920 , and transferred L. karawaiewi to Hypoaspis (Pneumolaelaps) Berlese, 1920 . However, it cannot be placed in Pneumolaelaps as defined by Evans and Till (1966) because the peritreme is of normal width and genu IV has only one ventral seta. We agree with Moraes et al. (2022) in placing this species in Euandrolaelaps until the whole group can be thoroughly revised.

The diagnostic character states we used to identify the species are the modifications of leg II of the female, and the very short cheliceral digits. Femur II has a large ventral cuticular spur and a thickened ventral spine-like seta, there is a very large spine-like ventral seta on genu II, and thickened ventral setae on tibia and tarsus II ( Costa 1968, his Figure 15). Our specimens also show the other distinctive character states described by Costa (1968) – movable digit of chelicera with a single tooth, corniculi elongate, and extreme differences in the lengths of the hypostomal setae. The species has been recorded from Israel ( Costa 1968), Iran ( Kazemi and Rajaei 2013; Hasanvand et al. 2014), Russia ( Berlese 1904b; Bregetova 1956, 1977), Bulgaria ( Koyumdjieva 1981), Slovakia ( Mrciak 1963), Latvia ( Salmane 2001), China ( Ma 1995) and USA (Walter 1988; Walter et al. 1988; Farrierand Hennessey 1993). It is now recorded from Pakistan for the first time.