Kamayev, Ilya ¹

¹✉ Address/Affiliation: Laboratory of ecology and genetics of insects and mites, All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center (“VNIIKR”), Bykovo (Moscow Oblast), Russia.

2024 - Volume: 64 Issue: 1 pages: 40-42

Short note

Keywords

Abstract

Introduction

The North American species Eotetranychus libocedri (McGregor, 1936) has been recorded on ornamental plants in a park in Istanbul, Turkey (Yeşilayer and Çobanoğlu, 2015) and in Budapest, Hungary (Kontschan et al., 2018; Kontschan, 2019).

This species was not known on the territory of the former USSR, including Russia (Mitrofanov et al., 1987), although it was mentioned by Wainstein (1960) and Mitrofanov et al. (1975) in the diagnostic keys with indicating the distribution of the species on the territory of the North America. Updating the fauna of spider mites from different regions of the world is important for the study of biodiversity and plant protection.

In the present study, the new record of Eotetranychus libocedri is reported for the first time for Russia.

Material and methods

The collection was carried out by the author in 2018 and 2022 on ornamental plants in the cities of Krasnodar and Novorossiysk (Russia). The mites were collected by beating the branches over an A4 sheet of white paper and then were preserved in 70% ethanol. Slides were prepared using Hoyer's medium (Walter and Krantz, 2009). Identification of mites was carried out under transmitted light using phase-contrast microscopes of ZEISS Axio Imager 2 and Levenhuk MED D45T LCD and using the following literature sources (McGregor, 1950; Pritchard and Baker, 1955; Tuttle et al., 1976; Baker and Tuttle, 1994).

Photographing and subsequent processing of the illustrations were carried out using Zen 2.3 and Zerene Stacker.

Materials and slides are stored in the acarological collection of the All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center (''VNIIKR″) and in the author's personal collection.

Results

Family Tetranychidae Donnadieu, 1875

Subfamily Tetranychinae Berlese, 1913

Tribe Tetranychini Reck, 1950

Genus Eotetranychus Oudemans, 1931

Eotetranychus Oudemans, 1931: 224. Type species: Trombidium tiliarium Hermann, 1804

Eotetranychus libocedri (McGregor, 1936)

Material examined — Twenty-four females, five males collected on Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco (Cupressaceae), ornamental plantings, (45°01ʹ04ʺN 38°57ʹ06ʺE), Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, 25-VI-2022. Three females collected on Thuja occidentalis L. (Cupressaceae), ornamental plantings, (45°03ʹ25ʺN 38°54ʹ55ʺE), Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, 26-IV-2018. Three females, 1 nymph collected on P. orientalis and T. occidentalis (Cupressaceae), ornamental plantings, (44°43ʹ13ʺN, 37°46ʹ34ʺE), Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, 3-5-X-2018.

Host plants — This species has previously been recorded on Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Tamaricaceae, Celastraceae (Migeon and Dorkeld, 2023). Eotetranychus libocedri is recorded for the first time on P. orientalis (Cupressaceae).

Remarks — To complete the record, dorsal aspect and shape of the first three pairs of dorsocentral setae (c1, d1 and e1) of E. libocedri female are illustrated in Figures 1A-B. Male aedeagus is shown in Figure 1C.

Most of all known records of E. libocedri in Eurasia are associated with ornamental plants both in our study and according to literature data (Yeşilayer and Çobanoğlu, 2015; Kontschan, 2019). Based on these considerations and taking into account the wide application of Cypress plants for ornamental purposes, it is assumed that the actual distribution of E. libocedri in Eurasia may be much larger than known by present time.

References

1. Baker E.W., Tuttle D.M. 1994. A guide to the spider mites (Tetranychidae) of the United States. West Bloomfield: Indira Publishing House. pp. 347.
2. Kontschan J., Kiss E., Ripka G. 2018. Alien, non-indigenous spider mites and flat mites (Acari: Tetranychidae and Tenuipalpidae) in Hungary. In: Sullivan G.T., Ozman-Sullivan S.K. (Eds). XV International congress of Acarology (Turkey, Antalya, 2-8 September 2018). Antalya: Bilkon Turizm Organizasyon Yayıncılık Ltd. Şti. p. 213.
3. Kontschan J. 2019. Akarológia: a taxonómiától a növényvédelemig. Doktori értekezés [Doctoral dissertation]. Budapest. pp. 150. [in Hungarian].
4. McGregor E.A. 1950. Mites of the family Tetranychidae. American Midland Naturalist, 44: 257-420. https://doi.org/10.2307/2421963
5. Migeon A., Dorkeld F. 2023. Spider Mites Web: a comprehensive database for the Tetranychidae. [27 Oct 2023]. Available from https://www1.montpellier.inrae.fr/CBGP/spmweb/index.php.
6. Mitrofanov V.I., Bosenko L.I., Bichevskis M.Ya. 1975. A key to the tetranychid mites of coniferous trees. Latvijas Entomologs. Suppl.: 1-42. [in Russian].
7. Mitrofanov V.I., Strunkova Z.I., Livshits I.Z. 1987. Opredelitel′ tetranikhovykh kleshchey fauny SSSR i sopredel′nykh stran (Tetranychidae, Bryobiidae) [Key to the tetranychid mites (Tetranychidae, Bryobiidae) of the fauna of the USSR and adjacent countries]. Dushanbe: Donish. pp. 224. [in Russian].
8. Oudemans A.C. 1931. Acarologische aanteekeningen. CVII. Entomologische Berichten, 8: 221-236.
9. Pritchard A.E., Baker E.W. 1955. A revision of the spider mite family Tetranychidae. In: Memoirs Series. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Pacific Coast Entomological Society. pp. 1-472. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.150852
10. Tuttle D.M., Baker E.W., Abbatiello M.J. 1976. Spider mites of Mexico (Acari: Tetranychidae). International Journal of Acarology, 2 (2): 1-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/01647957608683760
11. Wainstein B.A. 1960. Tetranikhovye kleshchi Kazakhstana (s reviziej semejstva) [Tetranychoid mites of Kazakhstan (with revision of the family)]. In: Trudy Nauchno-Issledovatelskogo Instituta Zashchity Rastenii Kazakhstana. Vol. 5. Alma-Ata: Kazakhskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo. p. 1-276. [in Russian].
12. Walter D.E., Krantz G.W. 2009. Collection, rearing, and preparing specimens. In: Krantz G.W., Walter D.E. (Eds). A Manual of Acarology. Third Edition. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press. p. 83-96.
13. Yeşilayer A., Çobanoğlu S. 2015. Tetranychidae (Acari: Prostigmata) species from parks and ornamental plants in Istanbul, Turkey. Gaziosmanpaşa Bilimsel Araştırma Dergisi, 11: 90-98.

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