Abstract
Macrocheles seraphim sp. nov. is described from French and Moroccan populations. This species was found phoretic on three species of dung beetles: Scarabaeus laticollis, Geotrupes mutator and G. spiniger. It was identified on the basis of morphological characters as belonging to the M. glaber group, but also has similarities with M. muscaedomesticae. Its systematic position as investigated by genetic analyses using the ITS-1 marker showed that this species was closely related to M. muscaedomesticae. Its relationship with glaber group species is discussed.References
Berlese, A. (1904) Acari nuovi. Redia, 2, 10–32.
Costa, M. (1967) Notes on macrochelids associated with manure and coprid beetles in Israel. II. Three new species of the Macrocheles pisentii complex, with notes on their biology. Acarologia, 9, 304–329.
Costa, M. (1969) The association between mesostigmatic mites and coprid beetles. Acarologia, 11, 411–428.
Evans, G.O. & Browning, E. (1956) British mites of the subfamily Macrochelinae Trägårdh (Gamisina: Macrochelidae).Bulletin of British Museum (Natural History) Entomology, 4, 1–55.
Filipponi, A. & Pegazzano, F. (1962) Specie italiana del gruppo-glaber (Acarina, Mesostigmata, Macrochelidae, Macrocheles). Redia, 48, 69–91.
Gandolfi, A., Bonilauri, P., Rossi, V. & Menozzi, P. (2001) Intraindividual and intraspecies variability of ITS1 sequences in the ancient asexual Darwinnula stevensoni (Crustacea: Ostracoda). Heredity, 87, 449–455.
Halliday, R.B. (1990) Mites of the Macrocheles muscaedomesticae group in Australia (Acarina: Macrochelidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy, 3, 407–430.
Halliday, R.B. (2000) The Australian species of Macrocheles. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 14, 273–326.
Halliday, R.B. & Holm, E. (1985) Experimental taxonomy of Australian mites in the Macrocheles glaber group (Acarina: Macrochelidae). Experimental & Applied Acarology, 1, 277–286.
Hyatt, K.H. & Emberson, R.M. (1988) A review of the Macrochelidae (Acari: Mesotigmata) of the British Isles. Bulletin of British Museum (Natural History), Zoology, 54, 63–125.
Kimura, M. (1981) Estimation of evolutionary distances between homologous nucleotide sequences. Proceedings of the National Academy Science USA, 78, No. 1, 454–458.
Krantz, G.W. (1983) Mites as biological control agents of dung-breeding flies, with special reference to the Macrochelidae. pp. 91–98. In: Hoy M.A. Cunningham G.L. & Knutson L. (eds) Biological Control of Pests by Mites. University of California Special Publication no. 3304. Krantz G.W. & Filipponi A. (1964) Acari della famiglia Macrochelidae (Mesostigmata) nella collezione del south Australian Museum. Revista di Parassitologia, 25 (1), 35–54.
Krauss, W. (1970) Die europäischen Arten der Gattungen Macrocheles Latreille 1829 und Geholaspis Berlese 1918. Acarologie (Nürnberg), 14, 1–60.
Lobo, J.M., Martin-Piera, F. & Veiga, C.M. (1988) Las trampas pitfall con cebo, sus posibilidades en el estudio de las comunidades coprofagas de Scarabaeidae (Col.). I. Caracteristicas determinantes de su capacidad de captura. Revue d’Ecologie et Biologie du Sol, 25, 77–100.Martin, A.P. & Palumbi, S.R. (1993) Body size, metabolic rate, generation time, and the molecular clock. Proceedings of the National Academy Science USA, 90, 4087–4091.
Navajas, M., Lagnel, J., Fauvel, G. & De Moraes, G. (1999) Sequence variation of ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS) in commercially important Phytoseiidae mites. Experimental and Applied Acarology, 23, 851–859.
Niogret, J. & Bertrand, M. (2005) Macrocheles vernalis Berlese, 1887: supplement to the description of male from a Moroccan population. Acarologia, XLV, 4, 267–273.
Niogret, J., Bertrand, M., Glida, H. & Lumaret, J.P. (2004) Dung or beetles, that is the question. Olfactory sensitivity, a significant trait of life of the phoretic mite Macrocheles perglaber (Acari : Mesostigmata : Macrochelidae). Phytophaga, 14, 215–222.
Posada, D. & Crandall, K.A. (1998) Modeltest: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics, 14 (9), 817–817.
Swofford, D.L. (1998) PAUP* Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (*and other methods). Version 4. Sunderland, Massachusetts, Sinauer associates.
Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Plewniak, F., Jeanmougin, F. & Higgins, D.G. (1997) The Clustal X windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research, 24, 4876–4882.
Tixier, M.S., Guichou, S. & Kreiter, S. (2006) Assessment of DNA diversity in the family Phytoseiidae: consequences for the use of molecular markers in taxonomy. In: Bruin, J. (Ed.), Abstracts Book, 12th International Congress of Acarology, 21–26 August 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, p203.
Walter, D.E. & Krantz, G.W. (1986) A review of glaber-group (s. str.) species of the genus Macrocheles (Acari: Macrochelidae) and a discussion of species complexes. Acarologia, 27, 277–294.
Walter, D.E. & Krantz, G.W. (1992) A review of glaber-like species with reduced sclerotization and ventral ornamentation: the scutatus subgroup (Acari: Macrochelidae: Macrocheles). International Journal of Acarology, 18, 241–249.
Wesson, D.M., McLain, D.K., Olivier, J.H., Piesman, J. & Collins, F.H. (1993) Investigation of the validity of species status of Ixodes dammini (Acari: Ixodidae) using rDNA. Evolution, 90, 10221–10225.