| First report of Abalakeus gonabadensis (Acari: Erythraeidae) from Alborz Province with a new host record |
| Paper ID : 1098-IPCA5 (R1) |
| Authors |
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Ebrahim Mobasheri *1, Marjan Seiedy1, Masoud Hakimitabar2, Najmeh Kiany1, Tara Pourmatin3 1School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of Living Organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 2Department of Horticulture and Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran 3Department of Biology, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran |
| Abstract |
| Parasitengone mites (Trombidiformes: Prostigmata) are among the most diverse acarine groups, comprising over 9,000 described species, with members that are ectoparasitic in their larval stage on a wide range of arthropod hosts. The genus Abalakeus Southcott, 1994 (Acari: Erythraeidae) was erected based on the larval type species A. chekei. Since then, five valid species have been described: A. chekei Southcott, 1994; A. bambusae Zhang et al., 2000 from bamboo forests in Fujian, China; and three species from Iran: A. lorestanicus Saboori & Lachinani 2003., A. jahromiensis Sedghi, Saboori and Hakimitabar 2010 and A. gonabadensis Ahmadi, Hajiqanbar & Saboori 2012. In this study a single larva of Abalakeus gonabadensis was collected from the hind-wing of a short-horned grasshopper belonging to the species Eremopeza festiva (Bolívar, 1884) (Orthoptera: Pamphagidae) at across the Central Alborz Mountains in Alborz Province, Iran (35° 54' 19" N, 50° 56' 31" E) on July 5, 2024. This specimen was extracted using a fine needle, cleared in Nesbitt’s solution and lactic acid, and then mounted on a microscope slide in Faure’s media. Morphological identification was based on the original species description, with the following diagnostic features observed: Dorsal idiosomal setae leaf-like, some normal setae on leg segments truncate, Ti III 118–227, Ti I 120–162, AL longer than PL, both leaf-like and barbed, two pairs of sternalae III and one solenidion on Ge III. This record represents the first detection of A. gonabadensis in Alborz Province, and introduces a new host, E. festiva. Prior to this study, A. gonabadensis had only been reported from Gonabad, Khorasan Razavi Province, Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces in western Iran, and Aydın Province, Turkey. This study investigated the geographical distribution and host range of the species and added new data to the distributional and ecological knowledge of Erythraeidae in the Middle East. |
| Keywords |
| Abalakeus gonabadensis, Erythraeidae, Eremopeza festiva, Orthoptera, new host record |
| Status: Abstract Accepted |
