PERSIAN JOURNAL OF ACAROLOGY
Year:2019 | Volume:8 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:10

Our precise observations on Laelaspisella elsae Joharchi, Babaeian & Jalalizand revealed the genus misidentification. We clarify the genus placement, transfer it to Reticulolaelaps Costa and redescribe it paying attention to some discrepancies in the original description. A new definition and diagnosis of Reticulolaelaps and a key for separation of all known species of this genus are proposed. New information on female morphological characters of Reticulolaelaps faini Costa, 1968 is presented, based on specimens collected from soil in Khuzestan and Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari provinces, Iran. Pseudoparasitus lativentris (Karg) and P. jilinensis Ma are transferred from this genus to Reticulolaelaps. A new definition of the genus Pseudoparasitus is proposed.

A molecular characterization based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene was used to genotype central-southern Iranian populations of Varroa destructor for the first time. A 570 bp segement was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction and digested with two restriction enzymes. Digestion of PCR products with XhoI produced fragments of 300 and 270 bp in all samples, whereas digestion with SacI did not produce any digested fragments. Results suggest that all samples belong to the K haplotype previously described for V. destructor in the literature. A total of 22 sequences of Iranian samples (418bp) were registered for the first time in NCBI.

The generic diagnosis of Bursaustium Haitlinger, 2000 is modified and Bursaustium zabolensis Noei sp. nov. (Acari: Trombidiformes: Erythraeidae) collected from soil samples (off host) under tamarisk trees in Zabol city, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, is described. It is the third known species of the genus and second species of this genus from Iran. A key to species of Bursaustium (larva) is also provided.

One new species of eriophyoid mite, Notallus phlomicosae Lotfollahi & Bahirai sp. nov., associated with Phlomis fruticosa L. (Lamiaceae) is described and illustrated from Lorestan province of Iran. It is the first record of a Notallus species on plants of Lamiaceae. In addition, a key to the known Notallus mite species worldwide, table of morphological comparison among them and figures of their prodorsal shield patterns are provided.

The walnut leaf gall mite (Aceria tristriatus) is one of the major pests of walnut in western Iran. Therefore, a study to determine the predatory mites associated with this pest in Hamedan and Lorestan provinces was carried out during 2014– 2017. In this survey, totally 10 species belong to six genera and three different families including Phytoseiidae: Kuzinellus kuzini Wainstein, Typhlodromus bagdasarjani Wainstein & Arutunjan, Typhlodromus khosrovensis Arutunjan, Euseius finlandicus Oudemans; Iolinidae: Neopronematus iranensis Ahmad-Hosseini et al., Neopronematus solani Ripka et al., Pronematus rykei Meyer & Rodrigues; Tydeidae: Tydeus caryae Khanjani & Ueckermann, Tydeus goetzi Schruft, and Tydeus electus Kuznetzov were collected and identified. Kuzinellus kuzini Wainstein had the highest frequency and distribution in this survey. Among the collected species, Typhlodromus khosrovensis, Typhlodromus bagdasarjani, E. finlandicus, N. solani, Tydeus caryae, Tydeus goetzi and Tydeus electus are re-described in the present paper. Tydeus goetzi and Neopronematus solani are reported for the first time for Hamedan and Lorestan provinces.

Oribatid mites are one of the dominant soil microarthropods. These mites have an important role in increasing soil fertility through organic materials decomposition. Oribatid mite communities (Acari: Oribatida) were investigated in orchards of five regions (Ahar, Kaleibar, Varzaghan, Heris and Horand) in East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The oribatid mites were studied in each orchard (apple orchards with size of approximately 0. 4 ha were selected) by collecting 12 samples taken from a maximum depth of 20 cm. Sampling was performed for six months in 2015. The oribatid species diversity (Shannon-Wiener index), Species richness (Rarefaction and Jackknife methods), Evenness by Shannon's index and similarity (Sorensen index) were calculated with Ecological Methodology 6. 0 software for all the regions. A total of 75 species belonging to 57 genera and 38 families of oribatid mites were collected and identified. The highest number of species (54 spp. ) was found in the orchards of Kaleibar, while the studied orchards of Varzaghan had the lowest number of species (21 spp. ). One– way ANOVA analysis showed that the Shannon– Wiener species diversity was highest in Kaleibar (H = 3. 409) and Ahar (H = 3. 419). Also, Kaleibar and Ahar had the highest species richness (Kaleibar: 79. 8 species, Ahar: 70. 7 species). Among studied regions, Kaleibar and Ahar had the highest species richness and species diversity but Varzaghan showed the lowest values, apparently because of geographical and climate differences between these regions.

Date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L. (Arecaceae) is attacked by several arthropod pests that frequently cause remarkable damage. El-Shafie et al. (2017) listed out 132 species of mites and insects in association with date palm trees. Eleven species of spider mites (Tetranychidae) have been so far reported from date palms, out of which two species, the Old World date mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor) and the Banks grass mite, O. pratensis (Banks) are considered as major pests (Bolland et al. 1998; Negm et al. 2015; Migeon and Dorkeld 2018). Faunistic studies of mites in Syria were neglected for long time as researchers give priorities to the biological and management aspects. Recently, several taxonomic works have been conducted describing new species and reporting new records of Syrian mite fauna. To date, more than 90 mite species have been reported, including 18 species of Tetranychidae (Zriki et al. 2015; Barbar 2016, 2018; Zeity 2017). Prior to this study, the genus Eutetranychus was represented in Syria by a single species, E. orientalis (Klein), which is considered as a serious pest of citrus at the coastal areas. The present study reports Eutetranychus palmatus for the first time in Syria from date palms and pygmy palms (Phoenix roebelinii O’ Brien) (new host record). Females and males were briefly described and illustrated...

Plegadognathus Morselli, 1981 has recently been re-established as a genus of the family Halacaridae. At present, only six species are known worldwide and have only been reported from seawaters (Bartsch 2016). On 5 November, 2017, three female specimens of P. bonariensis (Viets, 1936) were collected from steel settlement plates deployed offshore in Qatar, Persian Gulf (26. 765222, 51. 444944), at a depth of 18 m. Coll. P. Range and R. Ben-Hamadou. The specimens were cleared in lactic acid, mounted in Hoyer's medium and deposited in the first author's personal collection. Females 225 μ m long, 125 μ m wide. Anterior dorsal plate 90 μ m long, 63 μ m wide. Ocular plate 78 μ m long, 26 μ m wide. Posterior dorsal plate 135 μ m long, 90 μ m wide. All ventral plates fused with several porose panels. Genital opening 50 μ m long, 25 μ m wide with 2 pairs of pgs. Gnathosoma 65 μ m long, distinctly 4-segmented, palp length of the specimen (μ m); P-1 to P-4; 5/18/4/16. P-2 with single long dorsal seta, P-3 without seta. P-4 with 3 setae. The chaetotaxy of leg I as follows (from basifemur to tarsus); 2, 3, 3, 5, 6. The morphological characteristics and habitat preferences of the specimens reported here are in agreement with the previously given records (Fig. 1, Table 1). The colour of the idiosoma is light yellow (Fig. 2)...

The family Pachylaelapidae comprises four genera in Iran, including Olopachys Berlese, 1910, Onchodellus Berlese, 1904, Pachylaelaps Berlese, 1888 and Pachyseius Berlese, 1910, which have been systematically under survey recently (Babaeian and Kazemi 2011; Ahadiyat and Cheraghali 2012; Baroozeh and Ahadiyat 2012; Ahadiyat et al. 2014, 2016; Babaeian et al. 2016a, b; Abutaleb Kermani et al. 2017; Maš á n et al. 2018; Mojahed et al. 2017, 2019). Olopachys contains three species in the country, namely O. caucasicus Koroleva, 1976 (Ahangaran et al. 2010; Saberi et al. 2016; Mojahed et al. 2017), O. compositus Koroleva, 1976 (Kazemi and Ahangaran 2011; Ahadiyat and Cheraghali 2012; Ahangaran et al. 2012; Zakeri et al. 2012; Rezaie et al. 2016; Mojahed et al. 2017), and O. iraniensis (Mojahed et al. 2019), all belonging to the subgenus Olopachys (Olopachys) distributed in the northern provinces. Currently, Olopachys includes 23 species throughout the world (Ö zbek 2016; Mojahed et al. 2019)...

In the work was examined historical collection of ticks (Acari: Argasidae), which were collected by E. Pavlovsky. Purposes of the work are to assess the state of the tick collection, to determine the possibility of using it for molecular genetic examinations, to attract interested researchers to scientific cooperation. Academician Yevgeny Pavlovsky (1884– 1965) is a Russian parasitologist, a well-known researcher, who studied ticks and tick-borne infections. A lot of parasitological expeditions to Central Asia (1934– 1955) were organized by him. A large collection of ticks was collected during these expeditions. Ticks were collected in the territories of Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Armenia. The collection includes 580 lots, containing more than 15000 ticks (Acari: Argasidae). Museum samples are in satisfied condition. Now the tick collection is stored in the Department of biology of the Military Medical Academy (St. Petersburg, Russia). A trial examination of ticks was conducted with the aim of identifying genetic markers for tickborne infections. The examination was carried out by a real-time polymerase chain reaction (Real-Time PCR) with the help of special reagent kits (Bondarenko et al. 2012; Timofeev et al. 2012) (Table 1)...