Scarabaspis Womersley, 1956

Mašán, Peter & Halliday, Bruce, 2010, Review of the European genera of Eviphididae (Acari: Mesostigmata) and the species occurring in Slovakia 2585, Zootaxa 2585, pp. 1-122 : 79-80

Genus Scarabaspis Womersley

Scarabaspis Womersley, 1956: 590 . Type species Scarabaspis aspera Womersley 1956 (= Iphidozercon orientalis Berlese 1921 ), by original designation.

Diagnosis (adults). Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 147). Idiosoma dorso-ventrally flattened, oblong. Dorsal shield entire, suboval, completely covering dorsal idiosoma, not expanded ventrally, anteriorly produced into strongly developed vertex, fused with anterior sections of peritrematal shields; bearing fine reticulation or longitudinal pattern of fine granulation in submarginal region. Dorsal shield with 30 pairs of mostly short, subequal, uniform needle-like setae, only j1 and often r3 modified, thickened and slightly shortened, spine-like, acuminate or obtusely terminated; all setae with dorsal location on shield.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 148). Ventral shields well sclerotised, without distinct sculptural ornamentation on surface, only anal shield reticulated. Presternal platelets absent. Sternal shield bearing three pairs of setae and two pairs of pores; first pair of pores small, slit-like. Endopodal platelets II–III completely fused to sternal shield; endopodal platelets III–IV free on soft integument or closely abutting posterolateral corners of sternal shield. Metasternal platelets absent; metasternal setae st4 and adjacent pore inserted in soft integument close to posterior margin of sternal shield. Epigynal shield slender; genital setae and pores located on soft integument adjacent to lateral margins of epigynal shield; post-genital sclerites mostly absent. Anal shield wide, trapezoidal, with three subequal circum-anal setae. Exopodal platelets I–III mostly absent, exopodals IV present, narrow and curved. Metapodal platelets present. Peritrematal shields well developed along the whole peritreme, with anterior parts fused together and to dorsal shield to form the ventral part of vertex; peritremes long and wide; post-stigmatic section of peritrematal shields short, with rounded tips not extending beyond posterior margin of coxae IV. Lateral and opisthogastric integument simply striated, usually with ten pairs of setae. In male, separate sterno-genital and anal shield present.

Gnathosoma . Palptarsus with paired macroeupathidia. Movable digit of chelicerae with one subdistal tooth. Spermatodactyl short and simple. Epistome with elongated central projection and wing-like lateral elements serrated on distal margin.

Legs. Coxa I and II with at least one ventral seta modified into flat oval disk-like protuberance. Setation of legs I-II-III-IV: coxae 2-2-2-1, trochanters 6-5-5-5, femora 12-11-6-6, genua 11-11-8-7 and tibiae 11-10-7-7 ( Table 3). Male femur II with obtuse spur.

Notes on the genus. The genus Scarabaspis includes eight described species distributed in Asia ( Evans 1957b; Ishikawa 1968; Liu et al. 1992; Gu & Fan 1997b), Australia ( Evans 1957b; Womersley 1956), Africa ( Ryke & Meyer 1957; Shoemake & Krantz 1966), Europe ( Oudemans 1903; Evans 1957b), and North America ( Majka et al. 2007). In Slovakia and Europe, this genus is represented by a single Holarctic species.