Ameroseius avium Karg, 1976

Masan, Peter, 2017, A revision of the family Ameroseiidae (Acari, Mesostigmata), with some data on Slovak fauna, ZooKeys 704, pp. 1-228 : 1

Ameroseius avium Karg, 1976

Ameroseius avium Karg, 1976: 541.

Type depository.

Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany; Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary.

Type locality and habitat.

Chile, Tarapaca Region, Azapa, edge of marsh habitat, under rocks.

Comparative material.

Chile: 1 ♀ (HNHM: Meso-636, holotype) - 23. 11. 1965, Azapa (Prov. Tarapaca), unter Steinen, am Bach und am völlig ausgetrockneten Bachbett ; 2 ♀♀ (ZMB: 39921, 39922, paratypes) - 23. 11. 1965, Azapa (Prov. Tarapaca), unter Steinen, am Bach und am völlig ausgetrockneten Bachbett, 2998, 2999 ; 1 ♀ (ZMB: 39923, paratype) - 30. 10. 1965, El Manzano (Prov. Santiago), unter blühenden Straeuchern im Tal , 3000 .

Remarks.

I examined the holotype (♀) and three paratype females of the original series of Karg (1976) who has not specified the number of type specimens. All specimens examined are in poor condition for study, and only dorsal shield in those specimens can be examined with some difficulty. I was unable to check most of the characters on the venter of the idiosoma satisfactorily, especially the posterior margin of the sternal shield and the placement of st3. This species is very similar to those in the genus Sinoseius in that it has pinnate dorsal setae, curved epistome, oblong and anteriorly bilobed sternal shield, five pairs of opisthogastric setae, enlarged cheliceral digits and subcircular anal shield. Therefore, the systematic placement of Ameroseius avium in Ameroseius should be considered provisional and questionable. Karg (1976) did not state the number of dorsal shield setae; 26 pairs of setae were depicted in the original illustration, but I observed the normal complement of 29 pairs of the setae in the holotype. Karg overlooked some marginally inserted setae in medial part of the dorsal shield, and also overestimated the length of some very short setae inserted in the marginal region.