Holostaspis oophila (Wasmann)

Figures 50–55.

Laelaps oophilus Wasmann, 1897, 172.

Hypoaspis oophilus .— Oudemans, 1902: 24; 1903: 130.

Laelaps (Oolaelaps) oophilus .— Berlese, 1904: 428.

Oolaelaps oophilus .— Oudemans, 1914: 68.

Hypoaspis (Holostaspis) oophila .— Evans & Till, 1966: 206; Karg, 1979: 97; 1982: 247; 1993: 157.

Holostaspis oophila .— Bregetova, 1977: 549; Keum et. al., 2017: 490; Babaeian et al., 2019.

Specimens examined. Three females, RUSSIA, Tyumen Province, vicinity of Uspenka, 57°04’N, 65°04’E, 21 May 2018, O. Joharchi coll., in the nest of Formica fusca L. ( Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the rotting stems of trees and stumps.

Notes. Holostaspis oophila was described as Laelaps oophilus, which had been collected associated with eggs of Formica sanguinea Latreille and Formica rufibarbis F. (Wasmann, 1897). The description of this species is brief and lacks many important details, but additional morphological characters that complement the description of this species are presented by Evans & Till (1966). Vitzthum (1929) synonymised H. isotricha and H. oophila, but did not provide any explanation for that decision, and did not give details of the specimens he examined. We followed Evans & Till (1966), and consider them as separate species. Our specimens agree completely with Evans & Till (1966, Fig. 38) and Babaeian et al. (2019, Figs 57 –66). This species is widely distributed in Europe and Russia in ants’ nests and it is now recorded for the first time in Western Siberia, from the same host. The species is easily recognised by the very short setae of the podonotal area of the dorsal shield, setae of opisthonotal increasing in length from anterior to posterior, almost all opisthonotal area setae with 2–4 minute barbs distally (Fig. 50), epistome smooth (Fig. 54), anal shield with anterolateral extension, post-anal seta long and thick (Figs 51, 52), ad1 on femur I-IV well thickened and fixed digit of chelicera reduced with a small tooth, movable digit with a small sub-terminal which followed by the terminal hook (Fig. 55).