Gaeolaelaps minor

Gaeolaelaps minor (Costa, 1968) Hypoaspis minor Costa, 1968: 9. Hypoaspis minor.— Pramanik & Raychaudhuri, 1978: 6. Gaeolaelaps minor.— Beaulieu, 2009: 36; Moraes et al., 2022: 264. Specimens examined Two females, Jhangiwala, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan, 29° 25' N, 71° 45' E, 30 June 2014, soil core, undisturbed soil. Notes Specimens of Gaeolaelaps minor are very small and lightly sclerotised, with a narrow and elongate dorsal shield. The epigynal shield is elongate behind setae st5, but does not reach the anal shield. The peritremes reach to the posterior level of coxa I. The anal shield is semi-triangular, widest in the anterior half. The ventral setae on tibia IV and genu IV are longer and thicker than the other leg setae. This species is unusual in the genus Gaeolaelaps in that the anterior margin of the sternal shield is strongly desclerotised, so that setae st1 are inserted in soft granular skin in the pre-sternal area. Beaulieu (2009) reported only two species with this character state – G. minor and G. franzi (Van Aswegen and Loots 1970). Our specimens agree with the description of G. minor, with thesternal shield smooth, the sternal setae short, and hypostomal seta h3 short. In G. franzi the sternalshield is ornamented, the sternal setae are much longer, and hypostomal seta h3 is very long. Geolaelaps minor has been reported from Israel (Costa 1968) and India (Pramanik and Raychaudhuri1978). Bregetova (1977) provisionally proposed that G. minor could be a junior synonym of Laelaps (Hypoaspis) expolitus Berlese, 1904c, which was described from Italy. Berlese's illustrations of L. expolitus appears to show the unusual desclerotised anterior margin of the sternal shield. However,the types of L. expolitus are missing or lost (Castagnoli and Pegazzano 1985), and no informationabout it has been published since the original description, so the proposed synonymy cannot beconfirmed.