NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS CHELOMIDEOPSIS ROMIJN (ACARI: ARRENUROIDEA: ATHIENEMANNIIDAE)

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Abstract
Morphological, life history, and distributional data are presented for North American species of the genus Chelomideopsis Romijn. Chelomideopsis brunsoni (Cook) and C. besselingi (Cook) are redescribed on the basis of larvae, deutonymphs, and adults. Larvae and female adults of C. brunsoni, and deutonymphs of both of these species, are described for the first time. The mite described by Cook (1955) as the allotype female of C. brunsoni is correctly identified as a female of Platyhydracarus juliani Smith (1989). Four new species are described as follows: C. occidentalis sp.nov. (deutonymphs and adults), C. siskiyouensis sp.nov. (adults), C. minuta sp.nov. (female adults), and C. gledhilli sp.nov. (adults). A new diagnosis is proposed for Chelomideopsis based on knowledge of all active instars. New hypotheses on the phylogeny of species of the genus are presented, permitting the first assessment of zoogeography in this group of mites. The genus probably originated in Laurasia during the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary, and diversified and became widely dispersed in North America and Eurasia during the Tertiary. Mites of the genus apparently were adapted for the temperate climate that persisted until late Tertiary times, and were displaced to southern refugial areas by habitat destruction and climatic cooling associated with episodes of Pleistocene glaciation. The various species are now beginning to reinvade recently deglaciated areas from their Wisconsinan refugia, as they and their host chironomids colonize suitable spring and small stream habitats.