Two new feather mite species (Acarina: Psoroptidia) from the Chestnut Bulbul, Hemixos castanonotus (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae), in China

Abstract

Two new species of feather mites from the bird host Hemixos castanonotus Swinhoe, 1870 (Pycnonotidae) collected in China are described: Trouessartia bulbuli sp. nov. (Trouessartiidae) and Pteroherpus guangdongensis sp. nov. (Pteronyssidae). Trouessartia bulbuli sp. nov. is close to T. latisetata Gaud, 1952 and differs in having the following features: in males of T. bulbuli tibia IV has apical thorn-like process at base of solenidia φ, epimerites IVa are wide and with a small extension of irregular form on the anterior end; in females, the copulatory opening is on the small wide-angular projection (external copulatory tube) on the margin of interlobar membrane and h1 setae are filiform. Pteroherpus guangdongensis sp. nov. belongs to the hoplophorus species group and is most close to P. meghalayensis Constantinescu, 2014.The new species has the following distinctive characters: in males, a very long genital apparatus and the epiandrum with long branches, extending beyond the base of setae 4a, a pair of small additional sclerites posterior to prodorsal shield is present, and adanal shield is shaped as a small longitudinal sclerite of irregular form; in females, the hysterosomal shield is split into unpaired anterior hysteronotal sclerite shaped as shaped as dumb-bell, central sclerite of triangular form, paired lateral opisthosomal sclerites and pygidial sclerites (similar to those in other species of hoplophorus group), and the hysteronotal gland openings gl are situated on the striated tegument.