Steganacarus phyllophorus (Berlese, 1904)

Hoploderma phyllophorum Berlese, 1904a, p. 275; 1913, p. 103, pl. 8 figs. 102, 102a1).

Phthiracarus phyllophorus, Lombardini, 1936, p. 47.

Steganacarus phyllophorus, Schuster, 1957, p. 97, figs. 1-3.

The type of the species (no. 57/46, from Florence is still present in the Berlese Collection, together with another slide (no. 141/2) from the same locality.

Schuster (1957) recently collected the species in Austria, and prepared a detailed redescription. I collected several specimens of the species in the "Gardino di Boboli" in Florence (the type-locality).

I remark that Berlese apparently regarded the species as a representative of Hoplophorella, because according to Schuster (1957) his material is labelled as " Phthiracarus (Hoplophorella) phyllophora " and " Phthiracarus (Hoplodermella) phyllophora "; I remark that Hoplodermella certainly is a lapsus for Hoplophorella . S. phyllophorus is indeed related to Hoplophorella, but differs e.g. by the fact that 4 anal hairs are inserted near the median border.

1) In the explanation of pl. 8 an erroneous reference is made to fig. 101a.