Cheletophyes panamensis, phoretic female, nest of Xylocopa frontalis, Costa Rica, BMOC 03-1228-001 title=
Fig. 1. Cheletophyes panamensis, phoretic female, nest of Xylocopa frontalis, Costa Rica, BMOC 03-1228-001. Click to enlarge

Bee Mites : Acari : Acariformes : Trombidiformes

 
Family Cheyletidae Leach, 1815


Type genus Cheyletus Latreille, 1796


Material (show database records).

General Description. This cosmopolitan family includes 75 genera and 438 described species (Bochkov and Fain, 2001a; Zhang et al., 2011). Some species are predators occurring in soil, forest litter, under tree bark and on foliage, in spore tubes of polypore fungi, nests of birds, mammals or insects, quills of birds, grain storages, and house dust. Several species are ectoparasites of different terrestrial vertebrates. Females of some cheyletid genera were found phoretic on different insects, including bees: Cheletophyes Oudemans, 1914 on Xylocopa spp., Bak furcatus on Apis cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Nodele (Aztecocheyletus) on Aztecanthidium tenochtitlanicum (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), Samsinakia on Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae, Hypopicheyla Volgin, 1969 on Aradus (Hemiptera: Aradidae) and Tenebrionidae, Cheyletia Haller, 1884, Cheletophanes Oudemans, 1904, and Cunlifiella Volgin, 1964 on Aradus, and Paracaropsis Volgin, 1969 on Laphria and Pagidolaphria (Diptera: Asilidae) (Bochkov and Fain, 2001a; Bochkov and Mironov, 1998; Klimov, 1997; Volgin, 1969; our data).
While associations of Cheletophyes and Nodele (Aztecocheyletus) conquistador with their bee hosts are obligatory, many other cheyletid taxa reported from bees possibly represent opportunistic species, occupying a broad range of habitats including bee nests. The list below gives information on species of Cheyletidae recorded from bees.


Acaropsella sp. (Apis mellifera, Czech Republic)
Acaropsis sollers Kuzin, 1940 (Apis mellifera, Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan)
Bak furcatus Gerson and Fain, 1991 (Apis cerana, Tailand, Philippines)
Cheletomimus bregetovae (Volgin, 1969) (Apis cerana, Philippines)
Cheletomorpha lepidopterorum (Shaw, 1794) (Apis mellifera, Germany, Russia)
Cheletophyes apicola Fain, Lukoschus and Nadchatram, 1980 (Xylocopa latipes, Xylocopa pentachroma, Malaysia, Celebes, Philippines)
Cheletophyes clavipilis Fain, Lukoschus et Nadchatram, 1980 (Xylocopa latipes, Malaysia)
Cheletophyes decorus Bochkov and Klimov, 2004 (Xylocopa tranquebarica (Fabricius, 1804), Vietnam)
Cheletophyes eckerti Summers and Price, 1970 (probable synonyms: Ch. harnaji Putatunda & Kapil, 1988; Ch. haryanaensis Putatunda & Kapil, 1988; Ch. newtoni Putatunda & Kapil, 1988; Ch. orientalis Putatunda & Kapil, 1988; Ch. ruttneri Putatunda & Kapil, 1988; Ch. shendei Putatunda & Kapil, 1988) (Xylocopa aestuansIndia (Xylocopa imitatortera in Angola, bees in Congo, and Bembix ugandensis in Congo after Fain & Bochkov, 2001))
Cheletophyes indiacus Smiley and Whitaker, 1981 (=Ch. xylocopae Ramaraju et Mohanasundaram, 1999) (Xylocopa sp, India)
Cheletophyes mbomba Bochkov, Klimov and OConnor, 2006 (Xylocopa torrida, Africa)
Cheletophyes occisor Bochkov and Klimov, 2004 (Xylocopa aruana, Papua New Guinea)
Cheletophyes panamensis Klompen, Méndez and Lukoschus, 1984 (Xylocopa frontalis, Costa Rica, Panama)
Cheletophyes sp. (Xylocopa, Australia)
Cheletophyes torridae Bochkov, Klimov and OConnor, 2006 (Xylocopa torrida, Africa)
Cheletophyes venator (Vitzthum, 1920) (=Ch. aurorae Haitlinger 2000) (Xylocopa nigrita, Africa)
Cheletophyes vespae Fain and Bochkov, 2001 (Vespa tropica (accidental host, should be associated with Xylocopa), Malaysia)
Cheletophyes vitzthumi Oudemans, 1914 (Xylocopa caffra, South Africa)
Cheyletus carnifex Zachvatkin, 1935 (Apis mellifera, Czech Republic)
Cheyletus eruditus Schrank, 1781 (Apis mellifera, Bombus, Czech Republic, Poland, former USSR, India, New Zealand)
Cheyletus malaccensis Oudemans, 1903 (Apis, India)
Eucheyletia bakeri Volgin, 1963 (Bombus, USA)
Eucheyletia flabellifera (Michael, 1878) (Apis mellifera, Czech Republic)
Nodele (Aztecocheyletus) conquistador Bochkov and Klimov, 2004 (Aztecanthidium tenochtitlanicum, Mexico)
(Banaszak 1980, Bochkov and Klimov 2004, Chmielewski 1972, Chmielewski 1991, Corpuz-Raros 1988, Corpuz-Raros 2000, Fain and Bochkov 2001a, Gerson and Fain 1991, Grobov 1975, Haragsim et al. 1978, Homann 1933, Klimov et al. 2006, Klompen et al. 1984, Kumar and Kumar 1995, Macfarlane 2005, Malabanan and Corpuz-Raros 1998, Tomaszewska 1988, Walter et al. 2002)


Distribution (show map).

References
Banaszak, J. 1980. Badania nad fauną towarzyszącą w zasiedlonych ulach pszczelich [Investigations of the fauna associated in bee-hives] Fragmenta Faunistica (Warsaw).25: 127-177.
Bochkov, A. V. & P. B. Klimov. 2004. A new predaceous mite, Nodele (Aztecocheyletus) conquistador subg. n., sp n. (Acari: Cheyletidae), phoretic on a bee Aztecanthidium tenochtitlanicum (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Acarina.12: 23-27.
Bochkov, A. V. & S. V. Mironov. 1998. Samsinakia trilobitus sp. n., a new cheyletid mite from South India (Acari: Cheyletidae). Entomologishe Mitteilungen aus dem zoologishen Museum Hamburg.12: 265-268.
Chmielewski, W. 1972. Roztocze zwiazane z trzmelami. Pszczelarstwo.23: 11-12.
Chmielewski, W. 1991. Roztocze (Acarida) pszczoly miodnej (Apis mellifera L.) w Polsce [Mites (Acarida) of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) in Poland]. Wiadomosci Parazytologiczne.37: 91-94.
Corpuz-Raros, L. A. 1988. Systematic studies of Philippine cheyletid mites (Acarina). V. New species and new records, with a note on the synonymy of Tutacheyla Corpuz-Raros. Philippine Journal of Science.117: 413-427.
Corpuz-Raros, L. A. 2000. Two new species and a new record of Bak from the Philippines (Acari: Cheyletidae). International Journal of Acarology.26: 321-328.
Fain, A. & A. V. Bochkov. 2001. A review of some genera of cheyletid mites (Acari: Prostigmata) with descriptions of new species. Acarina.9: 47-95.
Gerson, U. & A. Fain. 1991. A new species of Bak (Acari: Cheyletidae) from Thailand, with a key to species. Acarologia.32: 17-21.
Grobov, O. F. 1975. [The mite fauna of the honeybee hive and stored honey.]. Trudy Vsesoyuznogo Instituta Eksperimental'noi Veterinarii.43: 255-267.
Haragsim, O., K. Samšiňák & E. Vobrázková. 1978. The mites inhabiting the bee hives in ČSR. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Entomologie.87: 52-67.
Homann, H. 1933. Die Milben in gesunden Bienenstöcken. Zeitschrift fur Parasitenkunde.6: 350-415.
Klimov, P. B. 1997. [Data on the biology and systematics of Paracaropsis travisi (Acari, Cheyletidae), a new mite for Russia]. In Fundamental'nye problemy okhrany okruzhayushchey sredy. Vol. 1. 9-10 Dec 1997, 9-11. Vladivostok.
Klimov, P. B., A. V. Bochkov & B. M. Oconnor. 2006. Host specificity and multivariate diagnostics of cryptic species in predacious cheyletid mites of the genus Cheletophyes (Acari: Cheyletidae) associated with large carpenter bees. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London.87: 45-58.
Klompen, J. S. H., E. Mendez & F. S. Lukoschus. 1984. A new species of the genus Cheletophyes Oudemans, 1914 (Prostigmata: Cheyletidae) from the nest of a carpenter bee in Panama. Acarologia.25: 249-251.
Kumar, R. & N. R. Kumar. 1995. Mites in close environment of honey bees. Insect Environment.1: 5-7.
Macfarlane, R. P. 2005. Mites associated with bumble bees (Bombus: Apidae) in New Zealand. Records of the Canterbury Museum.19: 29-34.
Malabanan, J. M. & L. A. Corpuz-Raros. 1998. Mites associated with Apis mellifera Linnaeus and Apis cerana Fabricius in the southern Tagalog region, Philippines. Philippine Entomologist.12: 123-135.
Tomaszewska, B. 1988. [Mites as parasites of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and as beehive co-inhabitants]. Wiadomosci Parazytologiczne.34: 177-84.
Volgin, V. I. 1969. Kleshchi semeystva Cheyletidae mirovoy fauny. Leningrad: Nauka. 432 [in Russian, English translation: Volgin V. I. 1987. Acarina of the Family Cheyletidae of the World. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi. 1-532]. pp.
Walter, D. E., J. J. Beard, K. L. Walker & K. Sparks. 2002. Of mites and bees: A review of mite-bee associations in Australia and a revision of Raymentia Womersley (Acari : Mesostigmata : Laelapidae), with the description of two new species of mites from Lasioglossum (Parasphecodes) spp. (Hymenoptera : Halictidae). Australian Journal of Entomology.41: 128-148.
Zhang, Z.-Q., Q.-H. Fan, V. Pesic, H. Smit, A. V. Bochkov, A. A. Khaustov, A. Baker, A. Wohltmann, T. Wen, J. W. Amrine, P. Beron, J. Lin, G. Gabrys & R. Husband. 2011. Order Trombidiformes Reuter, 1909 Zootaxa.3148: 129-138.



Image Gallery
Cheletophyes panamensis, phoretic female, nest of Xylocopa frontalis, Costa Rica, BMOC 03-1228-001
Cheletophyes		Nodele (Aztecocheyletus) conquistador, phoretic females on the propodeum of the bee Aztecanthidium tenochtitlanicum, Mexico, BMOC 03-1003-043
Nodele (Aztecocheyletus)



 

 

B. OConnor and P. Klimov ©
Created: April 26, 2012
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