Laelaspis astronomicus (Koch)

Iphis astronomicus Koch, 1839: 18 .

Laelaspis ovatus Willmann, 1951: 115; Pirianyk, 1959: 678. Synonymy by Evans and Till (1966).

Hypoaspis astronomica .— Evans and Till, 1966: 208; Solomon, 1969: 16.

Laelaspis zaheri Shereef and Soliman, 1978: 845 . Synonymy by Zaher (1986).

Laelaspis astronomicus .— Hunter, 1961: 672; Schweizer, 1961: 147; Lapina, 1976: 52; Zaher, 1986: 196.

Hypoaspis (Laelaspis) astronomica .— Karg, 1979: 101; 1982: 249; 1989: 120; Hajizadeh et al., 2010a: 204: 2010b: 355.

Laelaspis dubiatus (sic).— Nemati et al., 2000: 381 (misidentification).

Hypoaspis (Laelaspis) dubitatus .— Faraji et al., 2008: 208 (citing the misidentification by Nemati et al., 2000).

Specimens examined

Three females, Karaj, Shahrestanak, 35 ◦ 56 ′ N, 51 ◦ 22 ′ E, altitude 2330 m, 11 July 2011, O. Joharchi coll., in nest of Tapinoma sp.

Remarks

Nemati et al. (2000) reported the Neotropical species L. dubitatus from Iran on the basis of one specimen collected from the nest of the ant Tapinoma simrothi . We have not had the opportunity to examine that specimen, but on the basis of some unpublished photomicrographs of the specimen kindly supplied by Dr Nemati, we believe this was a misidentified specimen of L. astronomicus . Laelaspis astronomicus was also reported from Iran by Hajizadeh et al. (2010a, 2010b). This species is very widespread in Europe and elsewhere, in soil, organic litter, mammal nests and ant nests (Table 1).