Rediscovery and redescription of the type species of Myrmozercon, Myrmozercon brevipes Berlese, 1902 (Acari: Mesostigmata: Laelapidae)

The first record of the genus Myrmozercon Berlese (Acari: Mesostigmata: Laelapidae) in the Neotropical region and a description of a new species

“…Type species Parabisternalis yemeni Ueckermann and Loots, 1995, by original designation (synonymy by Shaw and Seeman, 2009). Diagnosis -The diagnosis of genus Myrmozercon follows that of Shaw and Seeman (2009) with modifications of Joharchi and Moradi (2013), and Kontschán and Seeman (2015).…”

“…Rosario and Hunter (1988) synonymised Myrmonyssus to Myrmozercon, and later Shaw and Seeman (2009) synonymised the subgenus Laelaspulus and monotypic genus Parabisternalis Ueckermann and Loots, 1995 to Myrmozercon. Myrmozercon currently includes 29 extant species and one fossil unnamed species from Eocene Baltic amber (Dunlop et al 2014;Joharchi et al 2015Joharchi et al , 2017. The extant species are known from the Palaearctic (15 species), Australasia (5 species), Afrotropic (4 species) and Nearctic (4 species), but so far are unknown from Indomalaya and Neotropic regions (Joharchi and Moradi 2013;Joharchi et al 2015Joharchi et al , 2017Kontschán and Seeman 2015). Myrmozercon species are associated with ants of the genera Camponotus Mayr, 1861 (Michael 1891;Berlese, 1903;Rosario and Hunter 1988;Joharchi et al 2011); Crematogaster Lund, 1831 (Vitzthum 1939;Sellnick 1941;Hunter and Hunter 1963;Trach and Khaustov 2011;Joharchi et al 2017); Formica Linnaeus, 1758 (Babaeian et al 2013); Iridomyrmex Mayr, 1862 (Banks 1916;Hull 1923); Messor Forel, 1890 (Berlese 1903;Babaeian et al 2014;Joharchi and Moradi 2013); Monomorium Mayr, 1855 (Ghafarian et al 2013); Myrmica Latreille, 1804 (Joharchi et al 2015); Myrmecocystus Wesmael, 1838 (Karawajew 1909); Pheidole Westwood, 1839 (Joharchi and Moradi 2013); Polyrhachis Smith F., 1857 (Walter 2003;Shaw and Seeman 2009); Tapinoma Förster, 1850 (Berlese 1902;Karawajew 1909;Kontschán and Seeman 2015).…”

Catalogue of the free-living and arthropod-associated Laelapidae Canestrini (Acari: Mesostigmata), with revised generic concepts and a key to genera

“…Myrmonyssus. -Berlese, 1904c-Berlese, : 436, 1913bHull, 1918: 63;Vitzthum, 1931cVitzthum, : 143, 1942Baker & Strandtmann, 1948: 386;Radford, 1950b: 22;Baker & Wharton, 1952: 95;Hunter & Hunter 1963: 341;Casanueva, 1993: 40;Farrier & Hennessey, 1993: 82;Kontschán & Seeman, 2015: 30. Myrmozercon.-Berlese, 1904c: 444, 1913bBanks, 1915a: 80;Vitzthum, 1931cVitzthum, : 143, 1942Radford, 1950b: 23;Baker & Wharton, 1952: 95;Rosario & Hunter, 1988: 466;Farrier & Hennessey, 1993: 83;Walter, 2003: 81;Shaw & Seeman, 2009: 44;Joharchi et al, : 28, 2015Babaeian et al, 2013a: 459;Ghafarian et al, 2013: 22;Joharchi & Moradi, 2013: 245;Kontschán & Seeman, 2015: 21;Joharchi et al, 2018b: 310; internet page.…”

“…Despite recent research having shed more light on the concepts of many genera, the morphological boundaries of most of them remain uncertain. For instance, the genus Myrmozercon benefited from a dozen studies since 2009, including the redescription of the type species (Kontschán & Seeman 2015), but the surprising morphological diversity in the genus as currently defined is calling for an analysis of character states and of relationships within the genus and with apparently related genera. A long-recognised genus (or subgenus) like Pseudoparasitus also present difficulties, with its concept unsettled by newly included species .…”

Some Mesostigmatic Mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) Associated With Ants in Shahrekord Region, Iran

“…Notes. Kontschán & Seeman (2015) redescribed this species based on material from western Greece. We present here some characters in which the Iranian specimens differ from their description.…”