Pelethiphis opacus Koyumdjieva

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 : 70-72

Pelethiphis opacus Koyumdjieva

( Figs 80, 94, 101, 131, 132)

Pelethiphis opacus Koyumdjieva, 1981: 22 ; Mašán, 1994a: 15; Makarova, 1998: 115.

Scamaphis opacus .— Błaszak & Madej, 1997: 195.

Diagnosis (male). Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 131). Dorsal shield entire, ovoid, 560–680 µm long and 355–435 µm wide, completely covering dorsal idiosoma, produced into inconspicuous flat vertex, smooth medially and weakly ornamented lateromarginally. Dorsal shield with 30 pairs of setae; setae strongly heterogeneous in length and form; 12 pairs of marginal setae, including vertical setae j1, strongly thickened and elongated, lanceolate, approximately six times as long as short needle-like central setae. Vertical setae j1 34–45 µm long; z1 minute, located on ventral surface of vertex. Setae j5 13–19 µm long, Z5 9–18 µm long, S5 and other long marginal setae 110–130 µm long, shortest dorsocentral setae about 10 µm long.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 132). Presternal platelets absent. Sterno-genital shield 245–295 µm long, 125–155 µm wide, well sclerotised, smooth, with five pairs of setae and three pairs of pores; first pair of pores slit-like, oriented transversely, second and third pairs oval-shaped. Endopodal platelets II–III and III–IV completely fused to sternal shield. Four small suboval post-genital sclerites present, barely visible. Anal shield ovoid, wider than long, anterior margin widely rounded, posterolateral margins slightly concave, 100–130 µm long and 125–155 µm wide, smooth, with three circum-anal setae; post-anal seta 61–79 µm long, three times as long as adanal setae. Exopodal platelets I–III absent, exopodals IV narrow and curved. Metapodal platelets elongate drop shaped. Peritrematal shields well developed along the whole peritreme, with fine longitudinal striation and network of fine lines ( Fig. 94), fused anteriorly and fused to ventral part of vertex; peritremes long, anterior ends reaching beyond anterior margins of coxae I. All ventral setae simple, needle-like. Lateral and opisthogastric soft integument simply striated, with nine pairs of setae (ten pairs in female deutonymph).

Gnathosoma . Cheliceral dentition and spermatodactyl as in Fig. 80. Epistome with elongated central projection and sloping serrated shoulders ( Fig. 101).

Legs. Chaetotaxy of legs typical for genus, as in Table 3. Legs not spurred.

Remarks. Pelethiphis opacus appears to be a specific associate of Copris lunaris (Scarabaeidae) and its nests. It is very closely related to Pelethiphis gurei ( Costa 1963) known from Copris hispanus in Israel, and Pelethiphis magnus ( Gu & Fan 1997a) reported from unidentified scarabaeid beetles from China. They represent a group of morphologically and ecologically very similar species having phoretically active males and deutonymphs and unknown females.

Occurrence in Slovakia. (a) Verified published data. Trnavská Pahorkatina Wold: Brunovce [7373] ( Mašán 1994a, 1994b).

(b) New data. Borská Nížina Lowland: 1 DN, 20 October 1992, Jakubov [7568]. Trnavská Pahorkatina Wold: 152 DN, 3 August 1994, Brunovce [7373].