A new Eocene free-living cheyletid mite from Baltic amber

Abstract

A new species of predaceous mite, Cheletomimus (Hemicheyletia) crinitus sp. nov. (Acariformes: Cheyletidae), is described from Eocene Baltic amber based on a fossil female. Among species of the genus, it belongs to the C. (H.) wellsi species group (16 extant species) and differs from the closely morphologically related species, C. greenwoodi by the following features. In C. crinitus sp. nov., setae d2 are situated on the hysteronotal shield (vs. off this shield in C. greenwoodi), the propodonotal and hysteronotal shields each bear five pairs of median setae (vs. 3 and 1 pairs of median setae, respectively), setae h1 and h2 are subequal in width to other lateral hysteronotal setae (vs. half the width of other hysteronotal setae).

Keywords

• systematics
• Baltic amber
• mites