Atypically Shaped Setae in Gall Mites (Acariformes, Eriophyoidea) and Mitogenomics of the Genus Keifer (Eriophyidae).

The setae in Eriophyoidea are filiform, slightly bent and thickened near the base. Confocal microscopy indicates that their proximal and distal parts differ in light reflection and autofluorescence. Approximately 50 genera have atypically shaped setae: bifurcated, angled or swollen. These modifications are known in the basal part of prosomal setae , , , , , , , and caudal setae . We assessed the distribution of atypically shaped setae in Eriophyoidea and showed that they are scattered in different phylogenetic lineages. We hypothesized that the ancestral setae of eriophyoid mites were bifurcated before later simplifying into filiform setae. We also proposed that hypo-furcating setae are a synapomorphy that unites Eriophyoidea with Nematalycidae. We analyzed four new mitochondrial genomes of the largest genus with bifurcated , and showed that it is monophyletic and has a unique mitochondrial gene order with translocated trn. We exclude Xue and Yin, 2020 from and transfer five spp. to : . (Liro 1941) , (Liro 1941) , (Liro 1941) , (Liro 1941) , and (Meyer 1990) .