A new feather mite species of the genus Proterothrix Gaud, 1968 (Acarina, Proctophyllodidae) from the Large Niltava, Niltava grandis (Passeriformes, Muscicapidae) - an integrative description

Ioana Cristina Constantinescu; Oana Paula Popa; Luis Ovidiu Popa; Ioana Cobzaru; D Khlur B Mukhim; Costică Adam

doi:10.3897/zookeys.661.11793

A new feather mite species of the genus Proterothrix Gaud, 1968 (Acarina, Proctophyllodidae) from the Large Niltava, Niltava grandis (Passeriformes, Muscicapidae) - an integrative description

Zookeys. 2017 Mar 14:(661):1-14. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.661.11793. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Ioana Cristina Constantinescu¹, Oana Paula Popa¹, Luis Ovidiu Popa¹, Ioana Cobzaru², D Khlur B Mukhim³, Costică Adam¹

Affiliations

¹ "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History, Sos. Kiseleff no.1, 011341 Bucharest 1, Romania.
² Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation Department, Institute of Biology, Romanian Academy, Splaiul Independenței no. 296, 060031 Bucharest, Romania.
³ Department of Zoology, Lady Keane College, 793001 Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

Abstract

A new species of the feather mite genus Proterothrix (Proctophyllodidae: Pterodectinae) is described from the Large Niltava Niltava grandis (Blyth) (Passeriformes, Muscicapidae) in northeast India (Meghalaya, Jaintia Hills, Shnongrim village). Proterothrix chachulae Constantinescu, sp. n. differs from all known species of the genus by having in males the aedeagus with bilobate tip. The morphological description is supplemented with molecular characterisation of a fragment f near the 5` terminus of the mitochondrial COI gene.

Keywords: Proterothrix; Pterodectinae; Taxonomy; feather mite; new species.