Siteroptes graminicola Mitrofanov, Shabanova and Sevastianov, 1984

Khaustov, Alexandr A., 2011, Nomenclature changes in the mite families Neopygmephoridae and Pygmephoridae (Acari: Heterostigmata: Pygmephoroidea) with redescription of two little known species, Zootaxa 2809, pp. 47-57 : 53

Siteroptes graminicola Mitrofanov, Shabanova and Sevastianov, 1984

Siteroptes tameri Sevastianov and Abo Korah, 1984: 1804 , fig. 4 syn. nov.

Mitrofanov et al. (1984) described Siteroptes graminicola Mitrofanov, Shabanova and Sevastianov, 1984 from European part of Russia. Later, Sevastianov & Abo-Korah (1984) described Siteroptes tameri Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984 from soil in Ukraine. My examination of holotypes of both species revealed their conspecificity. Therefore I consider S. tameri syn. nov. as a junior synonym of S. graminicola .

Material examined. Female holotype of S. graminicola Mitrofanov, Shabanova and Sevastianov, 1984 , slide 3555/1, RUSSIA: vicinity of Saratov, on barley, 30 July 1981, coll. N.F. Shabanova; female holotype of S. tameri Sevastianov and Abo-Korah, 1984 , slide Е-З 42, UKRAINE, vicinity of Odessa, soil under wheat, collector unknown.

Remarks. Livshits et al. (1986) placed S. tameri in the subgenus Allositeroptes Livshits, Mitrofanov and Sharonov, 1986 of the genus Siteroptes . However, it should be excluded from this subgenus, since it has no setae 4 a (present in Allositeroptes ), whereas setae 4 c are present (absent in Allositeroptes ), and the body is characteristically long and thin, more than two times longer than its width (not so long in Allositeroptes ). Females of S. graminicola have two setae on trochanter IV (v’ and probably v”). It is unique character for this species and not found in other representatives of Tarsonemina and known only in the sister group Tarsocheylina ( Lindquist 1987).