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Orhacarus

ALYCIDAE Canestrini & Fanzago 1877 (= Pachygnathidae Kramer 1877, Bimichaeliidae Womersley 1944)

Orthacarus tremli Zachvatkin, 1949; O. oblongus (Halbert, 1920) Ireland (see Uusitalo ms.).

 

DIAGNOSIS.  Prodorsum with 2 pairs of filiform trichobothria (si, ve) and 3 pairs of setae (se, in, exp); naso and median eye absent, one pair of lateral eyes.  Rutella with teeth and lobe; subcapitulum with 5 pairs of setae; chelicerae chelate-dentate, each with 1 seta.  Opisthosoma hypertrichous; 3 pairs of genital papillae.

 

 

REMARKS.  This genus is poorly known, but is most similar to Amphialycus, which retains setae vi and a median eye (but without a distinct naso) and has 2 pairs of lateral eyes.   Species of Alycus also have lost the median eye, but usually retain a vestigial naso and setae vi.

 

References

Halbert JN.  1920.  The Acarina of the seashore.  Proc. R. Irish Acad. Sec. B 35(7): 106-152.

Zakhvatkin AA.  1949.  New representatives of apparently segmented mites (Acarina: Pachygnathidae).  Ent. Obozer. Moscow 30: 291-295.