Great Basin Naturalist 51(4), 1991, pp. 348-376 FLOWER MITES OF TRINIDAD II. THE GENUS PROCTOLAELAPS (ACARI: ASCIDAE) Barry M. OConnor', Robert K. Colwell', and Shahid Naeem' Abstract. — Nine species of mites of the genus Proctolaelaps were collected in flowers or phoretic in the nares of hummingbirds in Trinidad. Previously named species P. kinnsei, P. glaucis, and P. belemensis are redescribed, and six new species are described: P. jurgatiis, P. mennillion, P. rabulatus, P. contumex, P. certator, and P. contentiosus. Proctolaelaps belemensis cyanocompsae is raised to specific status. Host plants are given for all species except P. mermillion, which was collected only from a hummingbird host. New World flower-inhabiting Proctolaelaps are grouped into two hypothetically monophyletic lineages, the /cinn.$c( -group and the belemensis -group, on the basis of adult morphology. A key to the nine Trinidadian species is given. Keijtvords: Trinidad . flower mite , Proctolaelaps, Ascidae, hummingbird. Mites of the family Ascidae are common inhabitants of flowers in tropical and subtropi-cal regions of the New World. Most of these flower-inhabiting species disperse through phoretic association with hummingbirds, although some have been collected from other bird groups and from Lepidoptera. The mites are typically carried in the nares of the bird. This is the second report on the systematics of these mites based on studies carried out on the island of Trinidad during the years 1975-1982 by field teams led by one of us (RKC). Three genera of Ascidae include spe-cies exhibiting flower-bird associations. We have previously reported on the two Trini-dadian species belonging to the predatory genus Lasioseius (Naeem et al. 1985). This paper will deal with species of the genus Proctolaelaps, while the third genus, RJiino-seius, will be considered in a final report (OConnor et al. , in preparation). Species of Proctolaelaps have been de-scribed from flowers in Africa (Ryke 1954, 1964) and from nectarivorous vertebrates from Australia (Domrow 1979). Fain et al. (1977a) first reported Proctolaelaps from the nares of hummingbirds from the New World, briefly describing four new species: P. hunteri, P. kinnsei, P. glaucis, and P. bele-mensis. Those authors later (Fain et al. 1977b) gave more complete descriptions of these spe-cies and described a new subspecies, P. hele niensis cyanocompsae, from the nares of a car-dinaline finch, Passerina { = Cyanocompsa) cyanoides. Hyland et al. (1978) gave new host and locality records for P. kinnsei and P. bele-mensis and described two new species, P. mexicanus and P. spiralis, the former from the nares ofatanager, Eiiphonia hirundinacea. Fain et al. (19771)) noted that all of the New World bird-phoretic Proctolaelaps shared certain unique morphological characteristics, notably the reduced cheliceral dentition and the presence of a large ventral spurlike seta on femur IV of the male. These characteristics are also found in the Australian species P. spencerae Domrow, 1979, but not in the African flower-inhabiting P. vatidenberg,i and P. proteae (Ryke 1954)^ Fain et al. (1977b) regarded the systematic position of the hum-mingbird-associated Proctolaelaps as uncer-tain, noting. We have placed all these species in the genus Proc-tolaelaps but it is quite possible that some or all belong to another perhaps undescribed genus in-termediate between Rliinoscius and Proctolaelaps (p. 127). In his recent revision ot Proctolaelaps, Karg (1985) made no mention of any of these New World or Australian species. In his taxonomic arrangement, in which subgenera and species groups were based on single character differ-ences, all of the flower-inhabiting species would belong to the pypnaeiis species group of the subgenus Proctolaelaps (sensu stricto). 'Museum of Zoology and Department of Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3042. 348
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