Abstract
The genus Opilioseius gen. nov. of the phytoseioid family Blattisociidae is described, based on adults and deutonymphs of one newly described species from Costa Rica. These striking long-legged mites undergo their life histories on the lower surface of their fungal hosts in lowland tropical rainforest. Opilioseius grallator sp. nov. coexists with a surprising variety of blattisociine and other mesostigmatic mites on fungi of the genus Coriolus. A diagnosis of the recently-revised familial concept of the Blattisociidae is given, along with a key to its constituent genera. Attention is drawn to the unusually large size of the egg relative to the size of the maternal female, and to an apical ventral process on the tarsus of legs II to IV, found to be present on a variety of other mesostigmatic mites, but not noted previously.References
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