Pachyseius masani Ozbek & Halliday 2014

Pachyseius masani Özbek & Halliday, 2014 (Figs 10–11) Pachyseius masani Özbek & Halliday, 2014: 110. Pachyseius masani.— Özbek & Halliday, 2015b: 105; Babaeian et al., 2016: 305; Şahin & Özbek, 2018: 244. Remarks This species (Fig. 10) was first described by Özbek & Halliday (2014) from Gümüşhane Province on the basis of seven females. Later Şahin & Özbek (2018) found four females from Bayburt Province and five females from Tunceli Province. Ahadiyat et al. (2016) described Pachyseius masanisimilis Ahadiyat et al., 2016 from Iran and distinguished it from P. masani based on the reticulation on the anterior part of the idiosoma, the position of the anterior tips of the peritremes, the position of setae j1, j2 and z1 and the poroid idj1, and the shape of the posterior ends of the peritrematal shields. The differences between these two species are slight, and may be due to intra-species variation and slide preparation artefacts. Özbek & Halliday (2014) illustrated the posterior end of the peritrematal shields in one specimen and did not mention shape of the posterior end of peritrematal shield in the other specimens. We have re-examined all specimens of P. masani and confirm that the posterior end of the peritrematal shield is clearly truncated in most of them (Fig. 11). It is therefore possible that P. masanisimilis is not a valid species, but is actually a synonym of P. masani. However, we cannot confirm that suggestion because we have not had the opportunity to examine the Iranian specimens. The status of these two species should be re-examined when more specimens are available, especially including males of the Iranian species.