Species of the genus Psoroptes (Acari : Psoroptidae): A taxonomic consideration

The biosystematic status of mite species belonging to the genus Psoroptes G ervais, 1841 is difficult to determine by phenotypic methods and has been s ubject to taxonomic revisions and ongoing debate. At present, the existence of five species, P. cuniculi (Delafond, 1859), P. ovis (Hering, 1838), P. equi (Hering, 1838), P. cervinus Ward, 1915 and P. natalensis Hirst, 1919, is generally accepted. This classification is based mainly on the host spec ies, the localization of the mites on their hosts and morphological charact ers of male mites. However, a critical review of the literature indicates t hat the features used to discriminate between the five species are not uneq uivocal: (a) the localization of mite populations on host animals is not co mpletely strict, (b) the lengths of the outer opisthosomal setae of male mi tes, which are the main morphological features used for species discriminat ion, overlap between the five postulated species, and (c) host specificity cannot be deduced from results of transfer experiments. Rather, conspecific ity of the members of the genus Psoroptes has to be presumed which is suppo rted by molecular genetic analyses. On these grounds and on rules of priori ty P. cervinus Ward, 1915, P. cuniculi (Delafond, 1859), P. natalensis Hirs t, 1919 and P. ovis (Hering, 1838) are seen as synonyms of P. equi (Hering, 1838).