'n Taksonomiese studie van die Cheyletidae (Acari : Prostigmata) van Suider-Afrika

Abstract

The higher taxonomy of the Prostigmata is explained with special reference to the Cheyletoidea and the Cheyletidae. Keys to the superfamilies of the Prostigmata as well as to subfamilies, tribes, genera and species are added. The exterior morphological characteristics of the Cheyletidae are described and an effort made to establish a uniform approach and nomenclature in the study of this family. Particular attention is paid to setae and mouth parts in this context. Re= production of the Cheyletidae is discussed in general and in particular with reference to specific species. As feeding has not, till now, been looked at in any great detail, the modes of feeding of the mites within their preferred habitats are described in some detail. The characteristics of the family and especially the genera are revised completely and a special effort made to represent the typification of the genera as accurately as possible. This fills a serious gap which has developed in the course of years. Of the nineteen genera (thirty species) of the Cheyletidae identified so far in the Afro-tropical area, ten are desribed by the author. This study includes renewed descriptions of females as well as first descriptions of males and larvae. Five new species are described, viz. Chelacaropsis capensis spec. nov., Chelacaropsis transvaalensis spec. nov., Cheletacarus quadridens spec. nov., Hemicheyletia concentrica spec. nov. and Prosocheyla (Reckiana) striata spec. nov Attention is also devoted to the basic structural plan of the mouth parts of Cheyletus malaccensis Oudemans, Cheletonella vespertiliones Womersley and Hemicheyletia wellsi (Baker). This constitutes an innovative contribution to an aspect of the Cheyletidae which has not been exploited at all.