Archegozetes magnus (Sellinick)

Archegozetes magnus (Sellinick) View in CoL

Materials examined

14 ♀♀ ex Rhinella alata (Thominot) ; anatomical location: dorsum of head and fore and hind limbs ( Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ). PANAMÁ: Darién province. Darien National Park, Rancho Frio Station . 12 June 2017. Coll: Lillian Domínguez, Dmitry Apanaskevich. Note: Not all mites on the toad were collected .

8 ♀♀, 1 nymph ex Rhinella alata (Thominot) ; anatomical location: dorsum of head and fore limbs ( Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). PANAMÁ: Panamá province. Soberanía National Park . 12 June 2023. Coll: Samuel Sucre, Macario González .

4 ♀♀ ex Tityus jaimei, Miranda, Bermúdez , Flores and de Armas 2020; anatomical location: dorsum of segments I and II of metasoma and leg IV ( Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ). PANAMÁ: Veraguas province, Santa Fe, Las Filipinas, 23 June 2017, ex Tityus jaimei male, coll. Roberto Miranda, Ingrid Murgas, Juan “Largo” Lezcano, Lyska Castillo.

32 nymphs ex Tityus festae Borelli ; anatomical location: mainly on the dorsum of the body, 2 individuals on carapace, 2 and 17 individuals on tergites IV and VII of mesosoma respectively, and 7 individuals in segments I and II of metasoma ( Fig. 4 View Figure 4 ). PANAMÁ: Darién province, Santa Fe , Quintín. 9 July 2019. Coll. Roberto Miranda, Ingrid Murgas, Juan “Largo” Lezcano, Lyska Castillo .

Immature and adult mites were identified as A. magnus , according to Badejo et al. (2002). In addition, we considered as valid on bona fide the criteria of Subías (2004, updated 2024) to the establish of A. magnus as the only species of the genus. Since A. magnus lives in humid areas, contact with its hosts must occur in this type of environment.

Archegozetes magnus is a prolific parthenogenetic species ( Badejo et al., 2002; Beaty et al., 2013), which explains the finding of females and immatures in our new phoretic association reports. In figures 1 (B, C) and 3 (B, C) the females have 8 and 20 eggs inside their body. In the case of the toad R. alata , this species is present in western Panama, Colombia and Ecuador ( Ibáñez et al., 1999; dos Santos et al., 2015; Samudio et al., 2015). Rhinella alata has diurnal and terrestrial habits and is frequently observed among leaf litter, under rocks, logs or decaying wood, in places near bodies of water, or on trails used by the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica (Guérin- Méneville) , which they include as prey ( Ibáñez et al., 1999; McElroy, 2015; Turcios- Casco, 2018). On the other hand, this species usually perches at the night on leaves at a low height ( Ibáñez et al., 1999; Sosa- Bartuano, pers. obs.). Thus, the fact that both species inhabit the same type of environment, humid areas, increases the possibility of contact.

To our knowledge, the finding of two R. alata in Panama correspond to the second species of amphibian as carrier of A. magnus , being E. pustulosus the first one ( Beaty et al., 2013). Similar to Beaty et al. (2013), our observations are consistent with phoresis and not parasitism, which contrasts with the opinion of Mendoza-Roldan et al. (2020), who reported A. longisetosus mites parasitizing R. major Müller & Hellmich in Brazil. However, these authors did not present evidence of damage, without taking into account the evidence of mycophagous and predatory/scavenging habits previously reported for this species ( Heethoff et al., 2013).

On the other hand, Salazar-Filippo et al. (2024) reported Archegozetes spp. as preys of E. pustulosus arguing that predation could occur due to the generalist behavior of this species of frog. Another report of Archegozetes spp. as prey of Anura includes the Dendrobatid frog Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser) ( McGugan et al., 2016) .

Regarding the finding of Archegozetes mites on the scorpions T. jaimei and T. festae , both species are considered of health importance in Panama and are mainly associated with humid forests ( Borges et al., 2012). These scorpion species present vertical and horizontal displacements during their hunt and mate activities, and refuge in the bark of trees, epiphytes, palm bracts, and on the ground in fallen trunks and roots ( Miranda, 2022). Considering the behavior of both species, contact must have occurred during the scorpions' passage through points with a high density of A. magnus or when the scorpions took refuge near the ground.

Similar to previous reports, A. magnus collected in both Rhinella alata and the two Tityus species were located mainly on the dorsum of the body ( Townsend et al., 2008; Beaty et al., 2013; Waleckx et al., 2018) however, in toads they were mainly found in the anterior region of the body (head and forelimbs), while in scorpions they were mainly located in the posterior part of the body (meso- and metasoma).

In summary, both the natural history and taxonomy of Archegozetes require further research.