A new species of larval Leptus (Parasitengona: Erythraeidae) and new records of larval Erythraeidae parasitizing Orthoptera from French Guiana

A BSTRACT — A total of 30 larval mites (Erythraeidae) parasitizing 8 species of Orthoptera were captured during a sampling trip in French Guiana. These collections represent the ﬁrst reports for the genera Leptus and Charletonia from this country. It is the ﬁrst time that Leptus nikanori Haitlinger, 2000 has been captured outside of Costa Rica and the third record for Charletonia domawiti Haitlinger, 2004 after being reported from Brazil and Costa Rica. We also describe and illustrate the new species Leptus multisolenidiae parasitizing Episomacris gruneri (Descamps and Amédégnato 1970).


INTRODUCTION
During a field trip in French Guiana, we collected 30 larval erythraeid mites parasitizing 8 species of Orthoptera.The mites captured belong to the Family Erythraeidae Robineau-Desvoidy 1828.Two of the species identified belong to the genus Leptus Latreille 1796 and another species belongs to the genus Charletonia Oudemans 1910.Both genera are distributed world-wide but no captures have been reported previously from French Guiana.Haitlinger (2004a) reported 19 species of Leptus described from South America.Since then, only one species Leptus tiranicus Haitlinger 2006 from Isla Margarita (Venezuela) has been described (Haitlinger 2006).The genus Charletonia is less known and only 8 species have been reported from the New World, two from Central America, two from South America and 4 from North America (Treat and Flechtmann 1979;Southcott 1991;Haitlinger 2000a;Haitlinger 2004b;Mayoral and Barranco 2011).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Mites parasitizing different species of orthopterans were removed from their hosts under a binocular microscope using with forceps.Orthopterans were captured during a sampling field trip in French Guiana by hand or using light traps.Measurements and illustrations were made after clearing the specimens in 50 % lactic acid and mounting them on slides using PVA medium (Walter and Krantz 2009) using a Nikon Optiphot-2 compound microscope with a drawing attachment.All the measurements are given in micrometers.Terminology and abbre-viations for the description of the new species follows Southcott (1993) and Haitlinger (1999).Data on paratype are written in parentheses.Remarks -This species was described from Brazil (Haitlinger 2004b) and captured on plants from a single specimen.Mayoral and Barranco (2011) captured this species in Costa Rica parasitizing Neoconocephalus triops Linnaeus 1758 (Tettigoniidae, Conocephallinae).Now, we report C. domawiti from French Guiana parasitizing two species of Acrididae (Orthoptera).This is the third report of this species worldwide.The hosts known for this species are all different species of Orthoptera.However, this species is able to parasitize the two different suborders, the long-horned (Ensifera) and the short-horned Orthoptera (Caelifera).
Remarks -Leptus nikanori was described from a single specimen from Irazú, Costa Rica collected on plants (Haitlinger 2000b).Later, it was captured parasitizing 3 species of katydids and 2 species of phasmids, also in Costa Rica (Mayoral and Barranco 2011).For the first time this species is captured in French Guiana.
The morphometric data and chaetotaxia of these specimens are identical to the ones reported from Costa Rica (Mayoral and Barranco 2010).Interestingly, some specimens from French Guiana show a longer solenidia on tarsus I (72 -94 µm) (R-282A,B; R-283A-F; R-284A,B) while other specimens captured in a location nearby have shorter solenidia (45 -49 µm) (R-285A-D).The second ones have the same length ("short") as the ones reported from Costa Rica in Mayoral and Barranco (2011).
Remarks -The presence of multiple solenoidialae on the genua III can be found only in one species of the genus Leptus, L. comosus Southcott, However, these two species differ from each other in several characters.Leptus comosus belongs to the group of Leptus with two genualae on the palp and is characterized as being "an extremely hairy larva, more so than any other described species" (Southcott 1991b), bearing ventrally more than 80 setae anterior to coxae III.This is not the case for L. multisolenidiae that belongs to the group of Leptus with one genuala on the palp and carries only 8 setae anterior to coxae III.Morphometric data also allows us to differentiate both species well, all the segments of the legs are considerably longer in the new species, cf. the length of the Ti I, II, III (230 -275, 202 -230, 285 -321 vs. 118 -138, 108 -125, 158 -186); thus resulting in a much larger IP (2813 -3097 vs. 1820, respectively).
Etymology -The name of the species is after the presence of many solenidiae on the telofemur of the leg III.