''Afropolonia'' is a genus of

chigger ''Trombicula'', known as chiggers, red bugs, scrub-itch mites, or berry bugs, are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) in the Trombiculidae family. In their larval stage, they attach to various animals, including humans, and feed on skin, ...

in the family

Trombiculidae Trombiculidae (); commonly referred to in North America as chiggers and in Britain as harvest mites, but also known as berry bugs, bush-mites, red bugs or scrub-itch mites, are a family of mites. Chiggers are often confused with Tunga penetrans, ...

, subfamily Apoloniinae, and tribe Apoloniini. , it is monospecific, just consisting of its

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

''A. tgifi''. It is found in South Africa. Its

type host In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

is the

Namaqua rock rat The Namaqua rock rat (''Aethomys namaquensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is sometimes included in the genus ''Micaelamys''. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, ...

. M. Lee Goff

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

''Afropolonia'' and described ''A. tgifi'' in 1983.

Diagnosis and description

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

to Apoloniinae species written by Goff in 1983, by Goff and colleagues in 1989, and by Wayne A. Brown in 2006, ''Afropolonia tgifi'' was paired with ''Apolonia tigipioensis'', the sole species of its genus. All three of these keys noted ''Afropolonia'' could be distinguished from ''Apolonia'' in having five branched

setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

on the palpal tarsus and in lacking subterminala I. Russian acarologist Alexandr A. Stekolnikov's 2018 key to African Trombiculidae paired ''Afropolonia'' with a pair including ''Straelensia'' and ''Vargatula''. His key distinguished ''Afropolonia'' from those two genera in having both an anterior and a posterior pair of sternal setae, in having branched galealae, and having a coxal setation formula of 1-1-1. The idiosoma, or body, of the ''A. tgifi'' larva measures . Its anterior eyes are 11 μm in diameter while its posterior eyes have a diameter of 6 μm.

Phylogeny

''Afropolonia'' is in the subfamily Apoloniinae. Goff placed ''Afropolonia'' in the tribe Apoloniini due to the sensillae having an "unexpanded" shape. Goff also included the genera '' Apolonia'', '' Straelensia'', '' Vargatula'', and '' Womersia'' in Apoloniini, following P. H. Vercammen-Grandjean and M. Kolebinova's 1968 circumscription of the tribe. A fifth genus, '' Liuella'' was later added to this tribe.

Distribution

''Afropolonia'' is found in South Africa. The type locality for ''A. tgifi'' is Studers Pass.

Biology

Namaqua rock mouse feeding on Pagoda Lily nectar

The

is the

. , this is the only known host.

Taxonomic history

The American entomologist M. Lee Goff

the genus ''Afropolonia'' in 1983. Goff designated ''A. tgifi'', which he described in the same work, as the genus's

. This was the sole species included in the genus. Goff's description was based on two specimens collected in 1980. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was deposited in the

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...

; the paratype was deposited in the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of the type species comes from the acronym ''TGIF'' ("Thank God It's Friday"). Goff had initially planned to describe this species in the ''

Journal of Medical Entomology A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'', although they rejected his paper because of this name; at the time, the

ICZN Code The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the ...

discouraged "comical" names. Goff has surmised that the ''Bulletin of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences'' subsequently accepted his paper because the European editors were unfamiliar with this term.

Notes

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q51129599 Trombidiformes genera Monotypic arachnid genera Arachnids of Africa Trombiculidae Endemic fauna of South Africa Parasitic arthropods of mammals