Pediculaster athiasae ( Wicht, 1970 )

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 : 52

Pediculaster athiasae ( Wicht, 1970)

Pediculaster petrovanikitinae Sevastianov, Chydyrov and Marroch, 1994: 8 , fig. 5 syn. nov.

Sevastianov et al. (1994) described Pediculaster petrovanikitinae Sevastianot, Chydyrov and Marroch, 1994 from fly Fannia sp. ( Diptera : Fannidae) from the Far East of Russia. My examination of phoretic female holotype of P. petrovanikitinae revealed its conspecificity with P. athiasae ( Wicht, 1970) redescribed by Martin (1978). Therefore I consider P. petrovanikitinae syn. nov. as a junior synonym of P. athiasae .

Material examined. Phoretic female holotype of Pediculaster petrovanikitinae Sevastianot, Chydyrov and Marroch, 1994 , RUSSIA: Amur Reg., on Fannia sp. ( Diptera : Fannidae), 26 June 1982, coll. Basykhyn.

Remarks. Pediculaster athiasae is very similar to the recently redescribed P. sterculinicola Sevastianov, 1981 ( Khaustov 2008a) and differs only by longer and well sclerotized apodemes 5. It is possible that this character is age dependent and thus P. sterculinicola could be conspecific with P. athiasae . However, the additional study of character variability in the genus Pediculaster is required.