Mackiella Keifer, 1939 :147

Chetverikov, Philipp E., Craemer, Charnie, Vishnyakov, Andrey E. & Sukhareva, Sogdiana I., 2014, CLSM anatomy of internal genitalia of Mackiella reclinata n. sp. and systematic remarks on eriophyoid mites from the tribe Mackiellini Keifer, 1946 (Eriophyoidea: Phytoptidae), Zootaxa 3860 (3), pp. 261-279 : 266

Genus Mackiella Keifer, 1939:147

Diagnosis. Mackielline mites with broad, thin frontal lobe of prodorsal shield covering medio-proximal part of palpcoxal bases; tibial solenidion φ present, prodorsal shield setae ve and sc directed anteriad or lateroanteriad; dorsal opisthosomal annuli thrice wider than ventral annuli, flattened, with a distinct pattern of prominent longitudinal ridges; ventral annuli convex and rising high on the sides to the lateral edges of dorsal annuli.

Type species. Mackiella phoenicis Keifer, 1939:147 –148, 159 (Fig. XLV)

Species included. M. phoenicis , Mackiella reclinata n. sp.

Remarks. The mite species Mackiella borasis Mohanasundaram, 1981 is herein excluded from the genus Mackiella (see details under subfamily Phytoptinae below).

Distribution and hosts. So far Mackiella mites have been recorded from North America ( USA, Keifer 1939), South Africa (this paper) and Iraq ( Mohamed & El-Haidari 1965) living on young leaves of Phoenix palms.

Remarks. Newkirk and Keifer (1975, p. 568) wrote that M. phoenicis is “widespread on coconut” and “undoubtedly occurring wherever the host grows” without providing a reference to a collecting record. Amrine and Stasny (1994, p. 224) mistakenly mentioned that the original name of Mackiella type species is “ nuciferae Keifer 1939 ” and that M. phoenicis was collected from Cocos nuciferae . This was repeated by Amrine et al. (2003, p. 19) who stated that this mite species is “widespread on Cocos nuciferae ”. Actually, Mackiella mites have never been recorded from coconut palms.