25. Hyperlaelaps amphibius (Zakhvatkin, 1948)

Laelaps amphibius Zakhvatkin, 1948: 74, figs 22–24.

Laelaps amphibius . — Lange, 1955: 334, figs 688, 689; Lange, 1958: 206, pl. LXXIV, B.

Hyperlaelaps amphibius . — Bregetova & Kolpakova, 1952: 60, fig. 1 v; Bregetova, 1954: 478; Bregetova, 1956: 117, figs 228, 230; Bregetova & Kolpakova, 1956: 188; Goncharova, 1956: 203; Goncharova & Buyakova, 1964: 280, figs 2, 6; Zuevsky 1968: 1245, figs 2, 4, 6, 8; Karg, 1971: 182, fig. 197d; Senotrusova, 1987: 178; Mašán & Fenďa, 2010: 50, figs 38, 39.

Hyperlaelaps amphibia . — Evans & Till, 1966: 144, figs 6 C, D; 7 D.

Laelaps pachypus . — Costa, 1961: 43, figs 70–74, partim, non Hermann, 1804.

Type locality. Russia, Volgograd Region, vicinities of Kotelnikovo settlement.

Type host. Arvicola terrestris .

Principal host. The European water vole, Arvicola terrestris (Zemskaya, 1973) .

Distribution. Palaearctic (northern Eurasia). Widely distributed throughout Siberia, absent in the Russian Far East (Nikulina, 2004).

Remarks. Costa (1961: 45) believed that Hy. amphibius and Hy. arvalis (= Hy. microti) “are at the opposite ends of a series of intergrading forms of the same species”. Later on, Zuevsky (1968) presented additional morphological evidence favouring the separation of the two species.