A NEW FEATHER MITE GENUS, MEGALAIMOBIUS GEN. N. (ASTIGMATA: PTERONYSSIDAE), FROM THE ASIAN BARBETS (PICIFORMES: RAMPHASTIDAE: MEGALAIMINAE) IN VIETNAM

About author:

Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Acknowledgments:

The author thanks Dr. M.V. Kalaykin (Zoo-logical Museum of the Moscow State University, Russia) for providing the opportunity to examine bird collection in the museum, and Dr. H.C. Proctor (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) for critically reviewing the manuscript.

The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 03–04–49072) supported this study.

Annotation:

A new feather mite genus Megalaimobius gen. n. and three new species of this genus are described from the Asian barbets (Ramphastidae: Magalaim-inae) in Vietnam. The new genus is closely related to Conomerus Gaud, 1981 associated with the African barbets (Ramphastidae: Lybiinae) and dif-fers by the following features: in both sexes, un-paired vertical seta vi present; in males, hysterono-tal shield free from humeral shields and without sclerotized ridges in antero-lateral angles; in fe-males, external copulatory tube present, posterior margin of opisthosoma strongly convex and with a pair of cone-like extensions bearing setae h3, and idiosomal setae e2 closer to each other than the distance between scapular setae se. The new genus includes the following species: Megalaimobius conogaster sp. n. (type species) from Megalaima haemacephala (Statius Muller, 1776), M. kalyakini sp. n. from Megalaima lineata (Vieillot, 1816), and M. latilobulus sp. n. from Megalaima oorti (Muller S., 1836).

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