Southcottella nematii Saboori, 2002

Noei, Javad & Rabieh, Mohammad Mahdi, 2019, New data on Nothrotrombidium, Southcottella and Eatoniana larvae (Acari: Trombellidae, Neothrombiidae, Erythraeidae) from Iran, Persian Journal of Acarology 8 (3), pp. 179-187 : 183-184

Southcottella nematii Saboori, 2002

Remarks

Southcottella nematii Saboori, 2002 was described from Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus) ( Orthoptera : Gryllidae ) in Khuzestan province, Ahwaz, Iran ( Saboori 2002). The specimen collected in South Khorasan province, Birjand (present study) as ectoparasite of Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus) ( Orthoptera : Gryllidae ) fits to the data of S. nematii given by Saboori (2000) except for the longer AW (54 vs. 44–46), ASens (47 vs. 22–28) and AA (45 vs 31–37) ( Table 2).

Ahwaz is located in Khuzestan province at the southwest of Iran. This region has a subtropical hot desert climate with long, extremely hot summers and, mild, short winters. In contrast, Birjand (the center of South Khorasan province) at the east of Iran has a desert climate with hot summers and cool winters and a significant difference between day and night temperatures. The observed differences between Ahwaz and Birjand specimens could be due to the different weather conditions and natural vegetation. Collecting further specimens of S. nematii from the original locations will allow interpreting the range of species variability. This is a second record from Iran.

Material examined

One specimen (ARS-20190321-2a) is collected as ectoparasite of Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus) ( Orthoptera : Gryllidae ), IRAN: South Khorasan province, Birjand city, Amirabad village (32° 87' 24" N, 59° 13' 66" E, 1421 m a.s.l.), 6 July 2018, coll. J. Noei. The specimen is deposited in the Acarological Collection, Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum ( JAZM), Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.