The discovery of pharate female of Eustigmaeus segnis (Koch) (Acari: Stigmaeidae) in its deutonymphal integument

During an examination on the mite specimens collected from Erzincan (Turkey) within the scope of a faunistic study, one female specimen emerging from the deutonymph of Eustigmaeus segnis (Koch, 1836), (Acari: Stigmaeidae) was observed. This specimen was found from litter and soil under bushes. Both the old skin and the new skin on the pharate specimen were visible during the final moult. The term pharate means a stage of an arthropod that is in the process of moulting and has not yet shed its old cuticle. It is demonstrated that the characters in transition from the penultimate deutonymph stage of the female to adult are mostly similar. Differently, it is observed that dorsal and ventral setae on the new skin in the final stage were longer and more robust than those of outer deutonymphal skin. In the previous stage trochanter IV, genua II and IV are not bearing setae whereas these leg segments are each bearing one seta. Normally coxisternal shields are divided in the immature stages in this species, whereas fused in the adult. However, these shields in both phases were examined as divided. From this, we conclude that fusion in the coxisternal shields is made in time. Morphology of pharate female specimen of E. segnis has been mentioned for the first time in the world in this study. With the present work, we aimed to contribute to the knowledge on morphology of developmental stages of mites