Odontoscirus iota Atyeo, 1960

Paktinat-Saeij, Saeid, Rostami, Aylar, Bagheri, Mohammad & Valizadeh, Saeid, 2020, Redescription of Odontoscirus iota Atyeo (Acari: Trombidiformes: Bdellidae) from Iran, with a key to the Iranian species of Odontoscirus, Persian Journal of Acarology 9 (4), pp. 303-310 : 304-307

Odontoscirus iota Atyeo, 1960 ( Figs. 1–9 )

Diagnosis

Palp chaetotaxy: 0-5-1-4-7; chelicera striated; each chelicera with two setae; movable cheliceral digit with 4–5 teeth; genital valves each with seven setae; solenidotaxy of genua I–IV 5-2-1-1.

Redescription (female, n = 4)

Measurements – Length of body (including gnathosoma) 891–951; width of body 364–418, length of gnathosoma 236–260; length of chelicera 224–243; leg lengths: I 468–515, II 457–475, III 506–530, IV 678–764; length of tarsi I–IV: 142–168; 132–143; 163–182; 194–225; VES 139–160, DES 142–155, DHS 39–53; palpomers I–V: 13–15, 130–153, 18–22, 20–22, 103–118; at 114–140, pt 121–149, mps 71–86, c 1 53–70, c 2 72–85, d 1 53–64, e 1 56 –67, f 1 55–63, f 2 54–68, h 1 57–76, h 2 50– 57; distance: at–at 53–65, pt–pt 116–132, pt–mps 22–25, mps–mps 84–100, c 1 –c 1 103–127, c 1 –c 2 56– 60, c 1 –d 1 94 –105, d 1 – d 1 121–143.

Dorsum ( Fig. 1 ) – Setae lps absent, at and pt thin and naked; prodorsum with fine broken striae; two pairs of eyes posterolateral to pt present, with transverse to oblique striations between them; hysterosoma with fine broken striae; dorsal setae smooth ( Fig. 1 ).

Venter ( Fig. 2 ) – Genital valves each with seven setae (g 1 –g 7); three pairs of agential setae (ag 1 – ag 3) present; anal valves with two pairs of smooth anal setae (ps 1 and ps 2), ps 1 38–49, ps 2 27–34. Three pairs of genital papillae present.

Gnathosoma ( Figs. 3–5 ) – Six pairs of ventral hypostomal setae (vh 1 –vh 6) longitudinally aligned, distances vh 1 25–37, vh 2 31–35, vh 3 31–39, vh 4 35–41, vh 5 37–45, vh 6 at apex of hypostome, 31–36 ( Fig. 4 ); hypostome ending in two lateral lips, bearing two adoral setae or 1–2 and with sparsely longitudinal striations, which are transverse at base, dorsal hypostomal setae (DHS) present. Chelicera ( Fig. 3 ) with longitudinal striae and with two setae, distal setae 55–67 longer than proximal setae 28– 36; distance between setae 31–36. Movable digit with 4–5 teeth, fixed digit straight, with 1–2 teeth and one slender acute process. Palp ( Fig. 5 ) chaetotaxy: trochanter 0, basifemur 5sts, telofemur 1sts, genu 4sts, tibiotarsus 4sts, 1s, 2 long terminal setae (VES, DES).

Legs ( Figs. 6–9 ) – Leg chaetotaxy: coxae I–IV 5/6-3/4-4/5-2/3 sts; trochanters I–IV 1-1-1-1 sts; basifemora I–IV 10/11-9/10/11-7/8-3 sts; telofemora I–IV 7 sts-7 sts-3/4/5 sts, 1 ms- 3 sts, 1 ms; genua I–IV 5 asl, 6 sts- 2 asl, 6 sts- 1 asl, 5 sts- 1 asl, 5 sts; tibiae I–IV 4asl, 1bsl, 1pe, 1T, 8/9 sts- 1asl, 1bsl, 1T, 7/8 sts- 1bsl, 8/9 sts- 8/9 sts, 1T; tarsi I–IV 1asl, 3bsl, 1pe, 26/28 sts- 1asl, 2bsl, 1pe, 25/27 sts- 25/27 sts, 1T- 23/25 sts, 1T.

Remarks

Until now, Odontoscirus iota was reported from United States ( Atyeo 1960), Georgia ( Gomelauri 1963), Bulgaria ( Sosnina et al. 1965), Ukraine ( Kuznetsov and Livshits 1979), Poland ( Michocka 1987) and China ( Xin et al. 1998). The characteristics of the specimens collected are similar to those of the original description of Atyeo (1960) except presence of DHS and an acute process on the fixed cheliceral digit vs. absence in original description; coxa II with 3/4 setae in the Iranian specimens vs. 2 setae in the American specimens and tibia III with 1bsl, 8/9 setae in the Iranian specimens vs. 1asl, 10 setae in the latter.

Furthermore, this redescription is also very similar to the redescriptions of Sosnina et al. (1965) and Michocka (1987) but it differs by: five setae on palp basifemur vs. six in latter. This is the first record of this species from Iran.

Material examined

One female from soil of an apple orchard, Torkamanchay, 11 December 2015; one female from bark of an apple tree, Balesin village , 18 December 2015, Miyaneh city, East Azerbaijan province were collected by Aylar Rostami and two females were collected from soil under a plum tree, Alavian village , 6 November 2016, Maragheh city, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, by Saeid Valizadeh .

Figures

Figures 1–5. Odontoscirus iota Atyeo, 1960 (Female) – 1. Dorsal view of idiosoma; 2. Ventral view of idiosoma; 3. Chelicera; 4. Subcapitulum; 5. Palp.

Figures 6–9. Odontoscirus iota Atyeo, 1960 (Female) – 6. Leg I; 7. Leg II; 8. Leg III; 9. Leg IV.