Previously considered as a thelytokous parthenogenetic species, the widespread ant cricket Myrmecophilus acervorum actually turns out to have a mixed reproductive system: our recent surveys in the central part of its distribution area has revealed the presence of both sexes. Detailed morphological and morphometric descriptions of the previously unknown males are here provided. New data on species distribution in south-eastern Europe are presented, including the first records of M. balcanicus in Bulgaria and of M. nonveilleri in Bulgaria and Hungary. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses have revealed several haplotypes of M. acervorum in Europe, with six of them forming a parthenogenetic clade in populations distributed west of the Carpathians. We tested our samples for bacterial infection by Wolbachia and, surprisingly, Wolbachia was identified only in populations with both sexes and no amplification was obtained from parthenogenetic populations. Phylogenetic analyses performed with sequences pertaining to five nominal species related to M. acervorum, yielded topological congruent trees with four well-supported groups: one group with M. acervorum samples, the second group with M. nonveilleri samples, the third group with M. fuscus and M. gallicus samples, and the fourth group with samples of M. balcanicus. We performed species delineation tests on our sequences, which delimited between four to seven putative species.
Two new feather mite species collected from the Huet's fulvetta, Alcippe hueti (Passeriformes, Leiothrichidae), in China are described: Proterothrix dinghushani sp. n. (Proctophyllodidae) and Trouessartia pauciseta sp. n. (Trouessartiidae). Males of P. dinghushani have a pair of lateral hysteronotal sclerites and a closed pentagonal sclerotized frame in the postero-median part of propodosoma. Females of this species have the sternum 1/4 of the total length of epimerites, and the terminal cleft exceeds half of the length of the lobar shield. Both sexes of T. pauciseta have a distinctive character, the absence of 3 pairs of hysteronotal setae (d1, d2, and e2), that clearly differs this species from all previously known species of the genus.
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