Feather mites of the subfamily Proctophyllodinae (Acari: Proctophyllodidae) from passerines (Aves: Passeriformes) in Costa Rica
Author
Mironov, Sergey V.
Author
Literak, Ivan
Author
Sychra, Oldrich
Author
Capek, Miroslav
text
Zootaxa
2017
4297
1
1
105
journal article
32537
10.11646/zootaxa.4297.1.1
8fc09650-9046-4bcd-bcbc-86b9ef2c221a
1175-5326
840212
4FFD1D74-8107-475F-920C-DF28AFC48FF9
Genus
Proctophyllodes
Robin, 1868
Type species:
Dermaleichus glandarinus
Koch, 1840
, by subsequent designation.
Proctophyllodes
is the most species-rich genus in the family
Proctophyllodidae
and also among all families of feather mites. Up to now it has included 170 species (
Atyeo & Braasch 1966
;
Gaud & Atyeo 1996
; Mironov 2012, 2017; Mironov & OConnor 2014;
Wang
et al.
2014
). Mites of this genus are associated almost exclusively with oscine passerines and have been recorded from 35 families of this grouping (as classified by
Gill & Donsker 2017
); additionally, three species inhabit suboscine passerines of the families
Furnariidae
,
Pittidae
, and
Tyrannidae
, and a single species is known from each of the three non-passerine orders
Apodiformes (Trochilidae)
, Charadriiformes and Piciformes (
Atyeo & Braasch 1966
).
The world revision of the genus
Proctophyllodes
was carried out by
Atyeo and Braasch (1966)
and this work is still the main taxonomic study of this genus and provides the only non-regional key for identification of its species. These authors proposed subdivision of the genus into 10 species groups although they did not suggest how they might be related to each other. Since then, two more species groups,
mecistocaulus
and
caulifer
, were established within
Proctophyllodes
(
Gaud & Fain 1990
;
Mironov & Kopij 1996b
). An overview of literature published after the revision by Atyeo and Braasch and an updated world checklist of
Proctophyllodes
species were provided by Mironov (2012). A preliminary phylogenetic study of
Proctophyllodes
and related proctophyllodids based on molecular data (
Knowles & Klimov 2011
) showed the derived position of this genus within the family, and revealed relationships between most previously recognized species groups. This study also showed that the genus
Proctophyllodes
is paraphyletic, because two highly evolved proctophyllodine genera,
Joubertophyllodes
Atyeo and Gaud, 1971
and
Monojoubertia
Radford, 1950
, arise from its core.
The fauna of the genus
Proctophyllodes
on passerines of the New World currently includes about 70 identified species (
Atyeo & Braasch 1966
;
Forrester & Spalding 2003
;
OConnor
et al.
2005
;
Galloway
et al.
2014
; Mironov & OConnor 2014). In the present work we report 7 species for Costa Rica, including 5 new species.