New records of soil dwelling mites of the superfamily Pygmephoroidea (Acari: Heterostimatina) from northern Iran

Abstract

A BS TRA CT . Following a short-term faunistic study on soil inhabiting heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Heterostigmata), during springwinter 2019, in Gorgan, Golestan Province, northern Iran, a total of six species from five genera of two families were identified. Among them Promicrodispus pumilis (Sevastianov, 1975) and Premicrodispus montanus Khaustov, 2006 are new records for mite fauna of Iran. The genus Promicrodispus Khaustov, 2017 is recorded for the first time for the mite fauna of Iran. Moreover, Pre. akermanae (Sevastianov & Al Douri, 1988), Paramicrodispus scarabidophilus Hajiqanbar & Rahiminejad, 2012, Pygmodispus (Allodispus) latisternus Paoli, 1911 and Scutacarus sphaeroideus Karafiati, 1959 were collected from soil in the sampling sites. The world distribution of the mites is reviewed.

An update on the knowledge about scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines

“…In the family Dryopidae, the genus Dryops has been reported as new host for Scutacarus sphaeroideus Karafiat, 1959 (Rahiminejad et al 2020b(Rahiminejad et al , 2023. About 75% of dryopid species are aquatic (Khagani et al 2022), but although no nearer information was available, it is most probable that S. sphaeroideus was attached to one of the remaining riparian or terrestrial species.…”