Meliponapachys Turk, 1948 (Laelapidae)

MAŠÁN, PETER & HALLIDAY, BRUCE, 2014, Review of the mite family Pachylaelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata), Zootaxa 3776 (1), pp. 1-66 : 51

Genus Meliponapachys Turk, 1948 (Laelapidae)

Meliponapachys Turk, 1948: 108 . Type species Meliponapachys pallidus Turk, 1948 , by original designation.

Notes. Turk (1948) described Meliponapachys pallidus on the basis of a single male specimen from the nest of the bee Melipona fasciata trinitatis Cockerell, 1919 in Trinidad. Because of the brevity of his original description and the lack of further collections, the genus has remained essentially unknown. The described specimen displays some unusual features that are not typical of the Pachylaelapidae , e.g. a pair of presternal plates each bearing a sternal seta st1, and minute free peritrematal shields. In the same paper and from the same nest of the host bee, Turk (1948) described a female mite as Hypoaspis favosus . This species also has a pair of presternal plates each bearing a sternal seta st1, which is unknown in Hypoaspis Canestrini, 1884 . In addition, both species possess similar reticulate ornamentation of the ventral shield. It is very likely that these two species are different adult stages of the same species. This hypothesis should be confirmed by further comparative study of mites collected in similar habitats in the Neotropical Region.