The life cycle of Parasitengona includes major morphological changes precluding an instar association based only on the morphology. This makes rearing and/or molecular data necessary to associate the heteromorphic instars. Most of the described species are known from either post larval instars or larva. Following a previous study on Palearctic Erythraeidae, in the present study the instar association was made through an integrative approach including rearing trials and molecular analysis of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene with the Bayesian Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent (bGMYC) algorithm for species delimitation. Two new cave dwelling Erythraeidae (Trombidiformes: Parasitengona) species are described Lasioerythraeus jessicae sp. nov. and Leptus sidorchukae sp. nov. including all active instars. Additionally, a complete description of the previously unknown adults of Charletonia rocciai Treat & Flechtmann, 1979 is provided with notes on the larva and deutonymph. We also demonstrate experimentally that Ch. rocciai larvae are not attached to the same individual host during the entire feeding stage. We discuss the presence of troglomorphisms in Le. sidorchukae sp. nov.; and the distribution of the species.

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In this study, a total of 4146 culicids collected in an Atlantic Forest area in Paraná state, southern Brazil were examined for the presence of mites. Forty larval Parasitengone mites (Arrenurus spp., Arrenuridae; Durenia spp., Trombellidae; Microtrombidium spp., Microtrombidiidae) parasitized 25 specimens of mosquitoes, with the intensity varying from one to nine mites attached. Most mites were found on Aedes serratus/nubilus, Culex vomerifer, Cx. pedroi and Cx. sacchettae. The overall percentage of parasitized mosquitoes was 0.6 %. The highest intensity of mites encountered was in an individual of Cx. pedroi with nine attached mites. Regarding the attachment site, most mite specimens were attached to the abdomen (n = 25), whereas 15 were located on the thorax. Specimens of Arrenurus spp. were only found on the abdomen of mosquitoes, and the same was observed for Microtrombidium spp., while Durenia spp. attached to both the thorax (n = 15) and abdomen (n = 4). This is the first record for the genus Durenia in Brazil. Additionally, some species of mosquitoes were, for the first time, reported as being parasitized by mites.

Unlike most terrestrial parasitengone mites (chiggers, erythraeids), known mostly from parasitic and easy-to-collect larvae, smaridid systematics are mainly based on the post larval instar. Larvae are rarely collected, and their biology and host associations are virtually unknown. Here we infer phylogenetic relationships of Smarididae based on 50 morphological characters using both larval and post larval instars, including data on the larval morphology of Trichosmaris obtained through rearing. The subfamily Smaridinae, as currently understood, was recovered paraphyletic: the genus Smaris was rendered as basal smaridid lineage, while the genus Fessonia (Smaridinae) was sister to Hirstiosomatinae, albeit with moderate support. Our analysis suggests that the genus Surasmaris Southcott, 1995 is a junior synonym of Trichosmaris Southcott, 1963 (syn. nov.), and two Sphaerotarsus species should be placed into Hirstiosoma: Hirstiosoma baenai (Mayoral & Barranco, 2017) comb. nov., Hirstiosoma quercus (Yazdanpanah, Saboori & Hakimitabar, 2016) comb. nov. Sphaerotarsus monticolus Southcott, 1997 and S. leptopilus were recovered as independent lineages, and hence, a new genus Southcottiana gen. nov. is proposed to include Southcottiana monticola comb. nov (Southcott, 1997). We describe two new species, Trichosmaris paulensis sp. nov. (adults, larvae) and T. calcarensis sp. nov. (larva), and present the first description of larval T. dispar, the type species of Trichosmaris, previously known only from post larval instars. Based on the above results, we give a key to larval genera of Smarididae and a key to species of Trichosmaris (larval and postlarval instars).

Two Limnohalacarus species are reported from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Limnohalacarus cultellatus Viets, 1940 and L. mamillatus Fain & Lambrechts,

Here, we describe a new smaridid species, Smaris hajiqanbari sp. n., based on the larva. This is the first description of a Smaris species from Brazil and the fourth larval Smaris ever described. An identification key to larval Smaris is also provided.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing availability of DNA sequence data from acariform mites. However, compared to Hexapoda, a clade to which the mite diversity rivals, the amount of acariform molecular data estimated in cells in supermatrix alignments (Fig. 1) is lagging behind by approximately one decade, since insect datasets reached 107 cells in 2010 (reviewed in Kjer et al. 2016).

Two new species, Newellia xakriaba sp. nov. and Centrotrombidium krenak sp. nov. (Trombidiformes: Parasitengona: Johnstonianidae) from Brazilian caves, are described based on vouchering material for which sequences from multiple genes are available. This article expands the geographical range of the genus Newellia André, 1962 known previously only from Angola.