Notes on the New World allopatric beetle genus Mycotrupes (Scarabaeoidea: Geotrupidae) and on Geotrupacarus mycotrupetes (Krantz and Mellott) (Acari: Macrochelidae), an early derivative phoretic mite associate of Mycotrupes gaigei Olson and Hubbell in southeastern United States

The five described species of the flightless, allopatric geotrupid beetle genus Mycotrupes are restricted to deep sand ridges in peninsular Florida and to adjacent, elevated sand hill habitats along the juncture of the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain in southern South Carolina and Georgia, USA. Based on examination of major museum collections of all five described Mycotrupes species, it was concluded that Geotrupacarus mycotrupetes, a distinctive, early derivative macrochelid mite phoretic on Mycotrupes gaigei, does not occur on any of the other four described species of Mycotrupes, nor have other species of Geotrupacarus been found on any of these beetles, all of which (like Myco. gaigei) are isolated and allopatric in their own sand ridge or sand hill habitats. It also was determined that Geotrupes egeriei Germar, a winged, widely distributed geotrupid beetle that co-occurs with Myco. gaigei in Florida and which is strongly attractive to G. mycotrupetes in laboratory settings, has not expanded the range of G. mycotrupetes beyond peninsular Florida.