Dabert Jacek
Department of Animal Morphology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614 Poznań, Poland.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Oct 19;14(20):3035. doi: 10.3390/ani14203035.
Feather mites of finfoots (Heliornithidae), a small gruiform family, are poorly and partly erroneously recognized. sp. n. (Astigmata: Pterolichidae) is here described from the sungrebe as the first representative of the genus commonly found on close relatives of finfoots, Rallidae and Sarothuridae. This species belongs to the species group having ornamented dorsal shields and is morphologically most close to inhabiting Eurasian coot (). Males of the new species differ from mainly by the shape of opisthosomal lobes (triangular vs. rounded) and the aedeagus form (parallel sided vs. tapering distally). Females differ mainly by the shape of supranal concavity (open anteriorly vs. closed) and location of setae in relation to supranal concavity (lateral vs. anterior). A key to known species of the genus is provided. The morphological analysis and descriptive characterization of this species, like much of the approximately 2500 feather mite species described to date, were based on mummified mite material preserved in 19th-century old museum bird specimens. These often-forgotten collections are the only source for the analysis of the acarofauna of many rare, unavailable wild or even extinct bird taxa.
小䴙䴘科（Heliornithidae）是一种小型秧鸡形鸟类，其羽螨鲜为人知且部分认知有误。本文描述了来自日鳽的新物种（粉螨目：翼螨科），这是该属在小䴙䴘科近亲——秧鸡科和拟鹑科中常见的首个代表物种。该物种属于具有装饰性背甲的物种群，在形态上与栖息于欧亚大陆的白骨顶（）最为接近。新物种的雄性主要区别在于体后端叶的形状（三角形与圆形）和阳茎形态（两侧平行与向远端逐渐变细）。雌性主要区别在于肛门上凹陷的形状（前端开放与封闭）以及刚毛相对于肛门上凹陷的位置（侧面与前面）。本文提供了该属已知物种的检索表。与迄今描述的约2500种羽螨物种中的许多物种一样，该物种的形态分析和描述特征是基于保存在19世纪博物馆鸟类标本中的木乃伊化螨类材料。这些常常被遗忘的收藏是分析许多珍稀、难以获取的野生甚至已灭绝鸟类类群的螨类区系的唯一来源。
