Taxonavigation

Familia: Tydeidae
Subfamilia: Tydeinae
Genus: Melanotydaeus
Subgenera (2): M. (Stylotydeus) – M. (Melanotydaeus)
Species (8): L.  (Melanotydaeus) chapultepecensis – L.  (Melanotydaeus) humeralis – L.  (Melanotydaeus) mammilaris – L.  (Melanotydaeus) raphignathoides – L.  (Melanotydaeus) simplex – L.  (Melanotydaeus) venustulus – L.  (Stylotydeus) brevistylus – L.  (Stylotydeus) styliger

• nec M. brachypalpus (j. synonym) — M. dyfrigi (j. synonym) — M. leorae (j. synonym) — M. shawi (n. comb.)

Name

Melanotydaeus Berlese, 1910

• Original status: subgenus
• Gender: masculine
• Type species: Lasiotydaeus (Melanotydaeus) humeralis Berlese, 1910 by original designation (Berlese, 1910: 211)

Notes

• Melanotydaeus was first described as a subgenus of Lasiotydaeus (Berlese, 1910: 211).
• It was raised to full generic level by Thor (1933: 48) and divided into two subgenera, Melanotydaeus (with humeralis and simplex) and Stylotydeus (with styliger and brevistylus).
• It was synonymized with Tydeus by Baker & Wharton (1952: 191) who misspelled the genus name (Melanotydeus instead of Melanotydaeus). According to Baker (1965: 102), the synonymisation must "be considered to be in error".
• Baker (1965: 99, infrapaginal note) wrote that "Melanotydaeus Berlese may be separated from these genera in that he has ball-like lobes on the dorsal striae" and added "The type is in such poor condition [...] and this type of structure may be an artefact".
• Baker (1965: 102) concluded that "it is impossible to know what the genus actually is".

References

• Baker, E.W. 1965. A review of the genera of the family Tydeidae (Acarina). In: Naegele, J.A. (ed.). Advances in acarology (2). Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press: 96–133.
• Baker, E.W. 1968. The genus Paralorryia. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 61: 1097–1106. DOI: 10.1093/aesa/61.5.1097 Reference page. 
• Baker, E.W. & Wharton, G.W. 1952. An introduction to acarology. Macmillan, New York. DOI: 10.5962/bhl.title.6810 Reference page. 
• Berlese, A. 1908. Elenco di generi e specie nuove di Acari. Redia 5(1): 1–15.
• Berlese, A. 1910. Acari nuovi. Redia 6(2): 199–234 (+ tables XVIII-XXI).
• Kaźmierski, A. 1989b. Morphological studies on Tydeidae (Actinedida, Acari) I. Remarks about the segmentation, chaetotaxy and poroidotaxy of idiosoma. Acta zoologica cracoviensia 32: 69–83.

• Kaźmierski, A. 1998. Tydeinae of the world: generic relationships, new and redescribed taxa and keys to all species. A revision of the subfamilies Pretydeinae and Tydeinae (Acari: Actinedida: Tydeidae) – part IV. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 41(2): 283–455. Reference page. 
• Silva, G.L. da, Metzelthin, M.H., Silva, O.S. da & Ferla, N.J. 2016. Catalogue of the mite family Tydeidae (Acari: Prostigmata) with the world key to the species. Zootaxa 4135(1): 1–68. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4135.1.1. Reference page. 
• Thor, S. 1933. Tydeidae, Ereynetidae. Das Tierreich 60: 1–84.