Review and identification key for family Lohmanniidae (Acari: Oribatida) in Iran, with a new record of three genera for the country

Oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) are one of the most important decomposers of organic matters in the soil and participate in the process of humus formation with microorganisms. In this paper, the fauna of oribatid mites of the family Lohmanniidae in Iran has been reviewed. The examined samples belong to a period of 30 years from 1992 to 2022 from different regions of Iran, that most of them are preserved in the Acarological collection of the Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University. The examined samples are about more than 700 individual mites, which have been mounted as microscope slides. In this review, 24 species of mites of this family belong to 10 genera (Cryptacarus, Haplacarus, Heptacarus, Javacarus, Lepidacarus, Lohmannia, Mixacarus, Nesiacarus, Papillacarus and Thamnacarus ) are introduced from different parts of Iran and a key to the genera, subgenera and species is provided. Three genera including Haplacarus, Lepidacarus and Nesiacarus are reported for the first time from Iran. In this paper, the role and importance of Lohmanniidae family in nature is also briefly mentioned.