We report on one new species, Aceria asphodelinis n. sp., from inflorescences of Asphodeline taurica (Pall. ex Bieb.) Kunth (Xanthorrhoeaceae), one new combination, Paraphytoptus chondrillae (Canestrini 1891) n. comb. (transferred from Aceria), from deformed inflorescences of Chondrilla juncea L. (Compositae), and six new records of eriophyine mites (Eriophyoidea, Eriophyidae, Eriophyinae) in southeast Crimea: Aceria peucedani (Canestrini 1891) from flowers of Seseli tortuosum L. (Apiaceae), Aceria salviae (Nalepa 1891) from inflorescences of Salvia tesquicola Klokov & Pobed. (Lamiaceae), Aceria erinea (Nalepa 1891) and Aceria tristriata (Nalepa 1890) from leaf galls of Juglans regia L. (Juglandaceae), Eriophyes calycobius (Nalepa 1891) from buds of Crataegus monogyna Jacq. (Rosaceae), Eriophyes pyri (Pagenstecher 1857) from parenchymatous leaf galls (“blisters”) of Pyrus communis L. (Rosaceae). Partial mitochondrial Cox1 sequences (1155 bp, 385 amino acids) of six Aceria and Eriophyes species are provided (GenBank accession numbers: MW691978–MW691983; MW851284). Aceria salviae, previously reported as a gall-former, was found to be vagrant, causing no visible damage to the host plant. Data from the literature suggests that it may be quite common for conspecific eriophyoids to differ in their ability to cause galls on closely related hosts. We provide several hypotheses that may explain this phenomenon and highlight the need for testing them via field experiments as well as molecular methods. We also advocate for broader usage of barcoding techniques in the taxonomy of Eriophyoidea and underline the importance of increasing the number of publicly available barcodes for various eriophyoid taxa.
As the world’s foremost taxonomist of eriophyoid mites (Eriophyoidea, Acariformes) (Xue et al. 2017), Dr. James (Jim) Wesley Amrine Jr.’s name is nearly synonymous with the group. His experiments with Phyllocoptes fructiphilus (Eriophyidae) as well as Varroa destructor (Varroidae, Mesostigmata, Parasitiformes) (Zhang et al. 2011) demonstrate Jim’s commitment to developing practical applications of Acari research. In recognition of these and other acarological impacts, we nominate Dr. Amrine for the James A. McMurtry Award. Here we review highlights of his remarkable career, and celebrate his scientific as well as personal contributions.
We report on a new phytoptid mite species, Oziella viscida n. sp., collected in Western Crimea from sea rush, Juncus maritimus (Juncaceae), and give supplementary descriptions of two rarely encountered nalepellid species of the genus Trisetacus from pines: T. confusus Livshits & Vasilieva, 1982 (in Vasilieva et al. 1982) from needle sheaths of Pinus nigra ssp. pallasiana (Pinaceae), an endemic subspecies restricted to Crimea, and T. brevisetus Livshits & Sekerskaya, 1982 (in Vasilieva et al. 1982) from needle sheaths of Pinus brutia ssp. pityusa (Steven) Silba, a relatively isolated subspecies of Turkish pine (P. brutia Tenore) growing in Georgia, Caucasus and Crimea. Oziella viscida n. sp. is remarkable in that most specimens were found inhabiting the basal part of leaves and stems of J. maritimus, an area covered by a transparent, sticky exudate apparently secreted by the plant epidermis. The mites were completely embedded in this substance and, rather than crawling with their legs, were observed moving through the viscous material while bending their opisthosoma in a serpentine or wormlike manner—an adaptation that appears to be currently unreported in eriophyoids and possibly reminiscent of locomotion of ancestral “protoeriophyoids” associated with soil. In comparison to females, males of O. viscida n. sp. and T. confusus have a more distinct prodorsal shield pattern consisting of a larger number of longer lines. Three new barcode gene sequences were obtained: MZ220550 (Cox1, O. viscida n. sp., 1159 bp), MZ224497 (18S, 2012 bp, T. brevisetus), and MZ224498 (18S, 2013 bp T. confusus). A BLAST search of the 18S sequences of T. brevisetus and T. confusus shows them as slightly closer to other 18S sequences of Trisetacus from Pinaceae (95.5%–96.3% identity) than to Trisetacus from Cupressaceae (93.6%–94.0% identity). Comparison of sequences of nalepellids currently present in GenBank suggest that a complete 18S sequence KJ841938.1 (2252 bp) from China belongs to an identified Trisetacus from Pinaceae rather than to Setoptus koraiensis as labelled, highlighting the necessity to review carefully the sequences of Eriophyoidea prior to using them in phylogenetic analyses, as well as the need to recollect and resequence S. koraiensis to clarify the nature of the problematic data from GenBank assigned to this species.
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