Species diversity of zerconid mites was investigated in Buharkent, Karacasu and Kuyucak counties of Aydın province during February 2019 until February 2020. Seven species of the family Zerconidae were found in the research area, two of which belong to the genus Prozercon and remaining five species belong to the genus Zercon. A new species, Z. karacasuensis sp. nov., was collected from pine habitats (Pinus sp.) and described. In addition, altitute and habitat preferences of all zerconid mites collected from the research area, were given.
In the present paper, zerconid mites of the genus Prozercon were collected from the Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park, Didim County, Aydın Province (western Turkey). After identification processes, three Prozercon species were found in the research area, among them, P. didimensis sp. nov. was described and illustrated as a new species for the science. Also, altitude and habitat preferences of the species were given and discussed.
Zerconid mites are important members of the soil fauna, and they colonize various soil substrates. Out of the 38 genera of the family Zerconidae known from the northern hemisphere, only 3 (Prozercon, Rafas, and Zercon) are known from Turkey. According to Ujvári (2011a), the genus Rafas Blaszak, 1979, which was defined earlier on the basis of its divided sternal shield, was proposed as a junior synonym of Prozercon. The genus Prozercon is the second richest genus of Zerconidae in Turkey. So far, 23 species of this genus have been recorded from Turkey (Urhan, 2008(Urhan, , 2010(Urhan, , 2013. In this paper, we report an additional species of this genus for Turkey, namely Prozercon martae Ujvári, 2010. It has been described by Ujvári (2010Ujvári ( , 2011b on the basis of material collected from Croatia.The mites in soil and litter samples taken from the Thrace region were extracted in a Berlese funnel apparatus. They were then fixed and preserved in 75% ethanol. The examination and drawing of the mites was carried out using an Olympus BX50 microscope with DP25 camera. Morphological terminology used in the descriptions follows that of Mašán and Fenďa (2004).
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