دومین گزارش جنسHarpyrhynchoides Fain, 1972 (Acariformes: Harpirhynchidae) از ایران

Harpirhynchidae is named feather mites and the main host are birds. Mites of the subfamily Harpirhynchinae (Acariformes: Cheyletoidea: Harpirhynchidae) are associated with neognathous birds, relatively small (10 genera and approximately 90 species) and widely distributed throughout the world. The most important characteristics of these subfamily mites are: modified legs III and IV in both sexes. These legs are short, represented by one or two segments, and bear several whip-like setae. In a faunistic survey on prostigmatic mites of Abarkooh, Yazd Province, leaf and twig samples were taken and examined in the laboratory during 2020-2021, then mites were isolated, cleared in nesbit and lactophenol, mounted in Hoyerʼs medium and studied under a stereomicroscope. Among the collected species, the genus Harpyrhynchoides Fain, 1972 was identified, which is the second report of this genus for the feather mites fauna of Iran. This genus has the highest number of species among the genus of subfamily Harpirhynchinae that all of them are ectoparasites on the host skin. The characteristics of these genera mites are: Dorsal idiosomal striae without tubercles or granules, vulvar slit not longer than 1/3 of idiosomal length, body flattened dorso-ventrally and setae h2 relatively short, not whip-like. So far, one species of this genus: Harpyrhynchoides rubeculinus Cerny and Sixl, 1971 reported from Kashmar, Khorasan Razavi province, in 2014 from the common nightingale luscinia megarhynchos (Muscicapidae). This species is under review and description.