Notes on the genus Beronium (Acari, Eutrombidiinae) enlightened by new captures of Beronium laemostenis in Spain

Abstract

The genus Beronium encompasses only three species, one described from Morocco, one from the Canary Islands and another from the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Each of these species was reported from a single location, their type localities. Captures in six new locations, all caves, are reported for one of the species, Beronium laemostenis Mayoral and Barranco 2005, previously considered endemic to a single cave in the south of Spain. Of the fifty larvae studied, a single teratological case in the second dorsal sclerite is reported and illustrated. Comments on the morphology, host specificity and distribution in caves for the genus Beronium are provided. © Mayoral J.G.