Accepted by B. Halliday: 14 Jan. 2009; published: 11 Feb. 2009 58 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2009 · Magnolia Press Zootaxa 2007: 58–68 (2009) www.mapress.com/ zootaxa/ Article A new species of Ophionyssus Mégnin (Acari: Mesostigmata: Macronyssidae) parasitic on Lacerta schreiberi Bedriaga (Reptilia: Lacertidae) from the Iberian Peninsula, and a world key to species MARÍA L. MORAZA 1 , NANCY R. IRWIN 2 , RAQUEL GODINHO 3 , STUART J. E. BAIRD 3,4 & JOËLLE GOÜY DE BELLOCQ 5 1 Department of Zoology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Navarra, No. 177, Pamplona, 31080, Spain. E-mail: mlmoraza@unav.es 2 Department of Biology, The University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, UK 3 INRA, UMR CBGP, Campus International de Baillarguet, CS 30016, F-34988 Montferrier-sur-Lez cedex, France 4 CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485–661 Vairão, Portugal 5 Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium Abstract A new species, Ophionyssus schreibericolus Moraza sp. nov. is described, based on adult females, males and protonymphal instars. Ophionyssus schreibericolus parasitizes Lacerta schreiberi, a lizard endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, and known to have persisted in refugial populations throughout the Pleistocene. A key to adult females, males and protonymphs of the genus Ophionyssus is presented. Ophionyssus viperae Miron & Ivan 2003 is synonymised with O. natricis (new synonymy). Key words: Acari, Macronyssidae, Ophionyssus schreibericolus , parasitic mites, Reptilia, Lacertidae, Lacerta schreiberi, Iberian Peninsula Introduction Among the 16 species of the genus Ophionyssus (Fain & Bannert, 2000; Hallan, 2005), only seven species have been found on lacertid lizards. The others are ectoparasites on different families of hosts (Fain & Bannert, 2000). The European species O. lacertinus (Berlese, 1892) parasitizes lizards in Great Britain, Netherlands and Italy (Fain & Bannert, 2000) and O. sauracum (Oudemans, 1901) is a common species in several European countries; three species belong to the Canary Islands fauna, O. galloticolus Fain & Banner, 2000 from Tenerife, O. setosus Fain & Banner, 2000 from Gran Canarias, and O. dolatelacensis Fain & Banner, 2002 from Lanzarote; O. eremiadis Naglov & Naglova, 1960 has been found in West Kazakhstan (Asia) and finally O. tropidosaurae (Till, 1957) is reported from South Africa. The mites described in the present work were collected from Lacerta schreiberi, a lizard endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, ranging from the northwest and extending into the mountains of the Spanish Central System (SCS), with some isolated populations in the south. The host organism is thus part of the Iberian refugial fauna, which has remained on the Iberian Peninsula throughout the last glacial maximum, and further is thought to have persisted in geographically separated populations throughout the Pleistocene (Paulo et al., 2001; Godinho et al., 2008).