DOI: 10.1515/ap-2017-0072
© W. Stefański Institute of Parasitology, PAS
Acta Parasitologica, 2017, 62(3), 597–605; ISSN 1230-2821
Redescription of Eutarsopolipus elongatus
Regenfuss, 1968 (Acari: Podapolipidae)
parasitising carabid beetles,
with first description of the male
Mohammad Sobhi, Hamidreza Hajiqanbar* and Abdolazim Mortazavi
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
A species of mites of the genus Eutarsopolipus Berlese, 1911 (Acari: Prostigmata: Podapolipidae), Eutarsopolipus elongatus
Regenfuss, 1968, belonging to the acanthomus species group, is found from northwestern Iran. This is first record of the species
from Asia including Iran. Also, unknown male of this species is discovered. During a survey on mites associated with insects
in northwestern Iran, three colonies of this ectoparasitic species were recovered from subelytral cavity of the carabid beetles
(Amara aenea). Purposes of this article are to describe the male and to redescribe the larval and adult females of this species,
with world key to male stage of the acanthomus species group of the genus Eutarsopolipus.
Keywords
Mite, Heterostigmata, new record, Carabidae, Asia, Iran
*Corresponding author: hajiqanbar@modares.ac.ir
Introduction
The family Podapolipidae (Acari: Prostigmata: Heterostig-
mata) are permanent parasites of several insect orders, partic-
ularly Coleoptera (Kaliszewski et al. 1995; Hajiqanbar and
Joharchi 2011). Many genera of this family have host speci-
ficity at the family level. Among the 32 podapolipid genera,
22 are parasites of various beetle families (Hajiqanbar 2013;
Husband and OConnor 2014), of which four parasitize bee-
tles of the family Carabidae: Eutarsopolipus Berlese, 1911
with 71 species, Dorsipes Regenfuss, 1968 with 22 species,
Regenpolipus Husband, 1986 with five species and Ovacarus
Stannard and Vaishampayan, 1970 with three species (Hus-
band and Ramaraju 2006; Hajiqanbar et al. 2007; Katlav et al.
2014; Husband and Husband 2015). Eutarsopolipus is the
largest genus of the family, classified into 14 groups. These
species groups are myzus with 19 species, acanthomus with
14, biunguis with 11, pterostichi with eight, ochoai with seven,
desani and brettae with two each, and secundus, crassiceps,
lagenaformis, leytei, megacheli, pseudopus, stammeri and
lukoschusi with one species each (Constantine and Seeman
2014; Mortazavi et al. 2014; Tajodin et al. 2014; Husband and
Husband 2015). Hitherto, three species groups consist of
myzus, acanthomus and biunguis have been recorded
from Iran (Hajiqanbar and Mortazavi 2012; Mortazavi et al.
2014; Tajodin et al. 2014). Acanthomus species group with
14 species is one of the largest groups in the genus Eutar-
sopolipus. One of the species in this group is E. elongatus
Regenfuss, 1968, that for first time collected from subelytra of
the Amara aenea DeGeer, 1774 (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in
Germany, and described based on only adult females (Regen-
fuss 1968). This species is also recorded from Ukraine para-
sitising A. littorea Thomson, 1857 including adult female and
larval female in the subelytral colony (Eidelberg and Husband
1993; Eidelberg 1994). It has to be noted that Husband (1993)
mentioned about the presence of E. elongatus in United States
however, that species is actually E. crassisetus Regenfuss,
1968 not E. elongates (R. W. Husband, Personal communica-
tion). Male of this species has never been found so far, and
descriptions of other instars (particularly legs chaetotaxy) are
incomplete. During the comprehensive survey of the het-
erostigmatic mites associated with insects in northwestern
Iran, three colonies of this species were found from beneath
elytra of carabid beetles Amara aenea. This is first record of