Revision of the genus Charletonia Oudemans (Acrina : Erythraeidae)

Abstract

A comprehensive revision of the genus Charletonia Oudemans, 1910 (Acarina: Erythraeidae) is made from (1) representative specimens of the Oudemans collection, Leiden Museum, of European, Asian, African, and Australasian species; (2) the South Australian Museum collection containing Australian material, as well as European material collected by Womersley; (3) the author's collection containing Australasian, Asian, and European material; and (4) the collection of larval erythraeid mites ectoparasitic upon Australian grasshoppers (and, to a small extent, phasmatids) of the Australian National Insect Collection, Division of Entomology, CSIRO. The genus is left with 32 species, comprising 5 European (1 new), 7 African (1 new), 5 Asian (1 new), and 16 Australasian (10 new). One species, C. volzi (Oudemans), is recorded from both Asia and Australasia. No North or South American material was seen. It has been possible to key all of these species, the only exception being that of C. ojirnai (Kishida) from Japan. Some reference is made to the life history of C. kvendowskyi (Feider) from Europe, and the egg stage described from preserved material. The fragmentary holotype larva of Callidosoma dasypodiae (Womersley) is redescribed, and brief reference is made to the rediscovery of this species, which has allowed its correct generic placing, previously impossible from loss of diagnostic parts of the original material.