Two new species of the genus Cryptognathus are described from Egypt; Cryptognathus (Favognathus) rosetta n. sp. on debris of cantaloupe at Rashid City , Beheira Governorate and Cryptognathus (Favognathus) aegyptiaca n.sp. under maize at Damietta City, Damietta Governorate. Adult female and male were described and illustrated.
INTRODUCTIO NCryptognathids are very small mites which are collected infrequently and in a small numbers from soil, leaf litter, mosses, lichens and under stones. They appear to be cosmopolitan in distribution, but very low is known of their habits. It has been suggested that they are predatory animals (Baker and Wharton, 1952; Meyer and Ryke, 1959), but their mouthparts are so delicate, with elongate, edentate chelicerae , so that they may be selective feeders on fungal spores. The needle-like chelicerae may also therefore, be adapted to select algal cells or else and this seems the best of several alternatives to pierce plant cells and drain the contents (Luxton, 1973 ).
The genus Cryptognathus was established by Karmer in 1879, withCryptognathus lagena as the type species .In 1893, Oudemans placed the genus in the Raphignathidae, with which family it has close affinities (Summers and Chaudhri , 1965) .However, the structure of the gnathosoma and of the integument of Cryptognathus are so distinctive that in 1902 Oudemams made it the type of genus of new family , the Cryptognathidae . The family still contains but one genus .The second species of the genus was not described until 1916 when Berlese established Cryptognathus cucurbita as well as a new subspecies Cryptognathus cucurbita subsequent records of the family and genus mainly identified newly found specimens with those of the either Kramer or Berlese (eg. Thor , 1931 , Womersely , 1935, Baker and Wharton, 1952) . However, in 1926, Hirst confidently erected a new species Cryptognathus australiensis. Thirty-two years were to elapse before a further new species (Cryptognathus sternalis Krantz 1958) was described from Oregon, and in the following year Meyer and Ryke published a second subspecies to Berlese`s Cryptognathus cucurbita. The mites species Cryptognathus ochraceus of Summers and Chaudhri was recorded from Israel by Gerson (1958). DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS