Eviphis Berlese

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 : 53-54

Genus Eviphis Berlese

Eviphis Berlese, 1903: 242 . Type species Iphis ostrinus C. L. Koch, 1835 , by original designation.

Iphidoides Oudemans, 1904 Type species Iphis ostrinus C. L. Koch, 1835 , by original designation. Junior objective synonym.

Diagnosis (adults). Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 65). Idiosoma highly domed, almost hemispherical. Dorsal shield entire, subcircular, smooth, without sculpture, completely covering dorsal idiosoma, never expanded ventrally, with simple flat vertex fused only with very narrow anterior sections of peritrematal shields. Dorsal shield with 30 pairs of simple, needle-like setae, dorsal setae slightly heterogeneous in length: marginal setae moderately longer than medial and submarginal setae. Setae j1 minute, subequal with the shortest dorsal setae, inserted dorsally. Setae z1 very minute and stout, scarcely visible, in marginal position on vertex. Sexual dimorphism of dorsal chaetotaxy absent. Some dorsal pore-like structures hypertrophied, suboval, conspicuous.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 66). Presternal platelets small, weakly sclerotised, transversely striate. Sternal shield well sclerotised, bearing three pairs of setae and two pairs of pores; pores slightly hypertrophied, slitlike, oriented transversely. Endopodal platelets II–III completely fused to sternal shield. Endopodal platelets III–IV fused to metasternal platelets, metasternal seta st4 and adjacent pore located on relatively large plate abutting anterolateral margin of epigynal shield. Epigynal shield relatively wide posteriorly, tapered anteriorly, genital setae situated submedially; genital pores inserted in soft integument. Four small post-genital sclerites present. Anal shield subtriangular, with widely rounded anterior margin and three subequal setae. Exopodal platelets I–III absent, exopodals IV present, narrow and curved. Metapodal platelets completely or partly fused with peritrematal shields, occasionally unfused but enclosed within an indentition in peritrematal shield and only very narrowly separated from it ( Fig. 72). Peritrematal shields well developed along the whole peritreme, anterior section fused to dorsal shield to form a narrow arch-like structure below the vertex; poststigmatic section of peritrematal shields greatly enlarged behind coxae IV; hypertrophied post-stigmatic pore situated about half-way between stigma and posterior end of peritrematal shield; peritremes long, anterior ends reaching to setae z1. All ventral idiosomal setae short and simple. Lateral and opisthogastric soft integument simply striated, with nine pairs of setae in females (one Jv absent), seven pairs in males. Male with separate sterno-genital, ventral and anal shields ( Fig. 69). Ventral shield large, irregular and variable in shape ( Figs 70, 71), anterior margin abutting sterno-genital shield, with two pairs of setae (Jv1, Jv2) and a pair of pores.

Spermathecal apparatus. Tubuli annulati long and thin, weakly sclerotised; sacculus foemineus well developed and sclerotised, large and sac-like ( Figs 67, 73).

Gnathosoma . Palptarsus with two closely associated macroeupathidia ( Fig. 77), palptrochanter with normal needle like setae. Cheliceral segments long and thin ( Fig. 48), cheliceral digits slender, movable digit with two small subdistal teeth, fixed digit with subdistal ampulla-like sensillum. Spermatodactyl short and simple, tube-like ( Fig. 74). Epistome with elongate central projection and subtriangular base, delicately serrate, without wing-like laterobasal elements; base with semi-arched pattern of ornamentation ( Fig. 68).

Legs. Setation of legs I-II-III-IV: coxae 2-2-2-1, trochanters 5-5-5-5, femora 12-11-6-6, genua 11-11-7-7 and tibiae 11-10-7-7 (see Table 3). Male legs without spurs; femur II with modified ventral seta, this seta strongly thickened, columnar and with rounded tip ( Fig. 75).

Notes on the genus. The type species of Eviphis , E. ostrinus , was first described under the generic name Iphis Koch 1835 . This name is not available because it is a junior homonym of Iphis Meigen 1800 (Diptera) . Numerous subsequent authors, including Canestrini and Berlese, were unaware of this, and described many further species of Eviphididae under the generic name Iphis .

There has been some confusion about the identity of the type species of Eviphis . Evans (1957a), Karg (1963, 1971, 1976, 1993), Bregetova (1977a) , and Evans & Till (1979) give Eumaeus pyrobolus (C. L. Koch 1839) (= Iphis pyrobolus ) as the type species, while Baker & Wharton (1952) and Ryke & Meyer (1957) cited the type species as Iphis ostrinus C. L. Koch 1835 (with the incorrect date 1839). Shoemake (1970) reviewed the history of these species as well as the origin of the genera Iphis C. L. Koch 1835 , Eumaeus C. L. Koch 1843 and Eviphis Berlese 1903 . He argued persuasively that I. ostrinus is the type species of Eviphis . Furthermore, I. pyrobolus is a dubious species with practically unknown morphology.

The genus Eviphis is here considered to be monotypic, following Mašán & Halliday (2009a). Eviphis is separated from Copriphis by the characters in couplet 8 of the key to genera for females, in couplet 4 of the key to genera for males, and in Table 5. All of the beetle-associated species originally described under the name Eviphis are now placed in Copriphis . We have examined several species originally placed in Eviphis , collected from various coprophagous scarabaeids, and found that they meet the generic diagnosis of Copriphis , not Eviphis . Under this definition, the monotypic genus Eviphis is known from Europe and some adjacent regions in Asia.