Sphaerolaelaps Berlese, 1903

MAŠÁN, PETER & HALLIDAY, BRUCE, 2014, Review of the mite family Pachylaelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata), Zootaxa 3776 (1), pp. 1-66 : 26-27

Genus Sphaerolaelaps Berlese, 1903

Spherolaelaps Berlese, 1903a: 243 .

Sphaerolaelaps .— Berlese, 1904: 304.

Sphaerolaelaps .— Berlese, 1904: 447.

Type species Laelaps holothyroides Leonardi, 1896 , by original designation.

The original spelling of the name of this genus was Spherolaelaps ( Berlese, 1903a: 243) . Since then it has always been spelled as Sphaerolaelaps or Sphaerolaelaps , including by Berlese himself. That spelling is maintained here in the interest of stability.

Berlese (1903a) proposed the new genus Sphaerolaelaps with Laelaps holothyroides Leonardi, 1896 as type species, and placed it in the Laelapidae . Later, Berlese (1904) placed the genus together with Pachylaelaps into the Gamasidae . Hirschmann & Krauss (1965) and Karg (1971) placed Sphaerolaelaps holothyroides in Pachylaelaps , but their action has not gained general acceptance. The genus was regarded as valid by Berlese (1913a), Vitzthum (1931), Koroleva (1977b), Koroleva & Sklyar (1982), Moraza & Johnston (1990), Karg (1993) and Mašán (2007a).

This monotypic genus may be recognised by the presence of distinctive modified dorsal setae, which are elongated and thickened, with club-like tips, the atypical position of some dorsal setae, hypertrichous opisthogastric region, the unusual shape of the epistome, bifurcated processes on genu II and tibia II in the male, globular idiosoma, legs longer than the idiosoma, and uniformly setaceous tarsi II, without spur-like distal setae.