Insectolaelaps zvoleniensis (Wiśniewski and Hirschmann), a common but little known digamasellid mite (Acari: Mesostigmata) of subcortical microhabitats in Slovakia

The adult and deutonymphal stages of Insectolaelaps zvoleniensis (Wiśniewski and Hirschmann, 1984) are redescribed from specimens collected in various subcortical microhabitats, mainly in association with the galleries of the flat bark beetle Cucujus cinnaberinus (Scopoli), which serves as a specific phoretic host of the deutonymphs. Since its description until today, the mite is known only from the males and deutonymphs originally found in central Slovakia. Multidendrolaelaps putte Huhta and Karg, 2010, described only from females and deutonymphs from Finland, is proposed as a new junior synonym of I. zvoleniensis. Insectolaelaps zvoleniensis is reported for the second time from Slovakia, although it is one of the most common mesostigmatic mites occurring under the bark of unhealthy or dead trees in a large part of the country. The species is unusual in that the weakly sclerotized integument of the female apparently divides the sternal shield longitudinally into two halves and the segments of the male legs IV are not armed with spurs or spines ‒ features not previously found in Insectolaelaps Shcherbak, 1980.