Taxonomy of the most important predatory mite family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) is essentially based on morphological observations, and only a few studies use molecular approaches. In some cases, tiny morphological differences (e.g. number of teeth on cheliceral digits, presence of dorsal solenostomes) should be observed for accurate species identification. Kampimodromus ragusai Swirski & Amitai, originally described from Israel, was suspected as a junior synonym of K. aberrans (Oudemans) in an earlier study. The only difference between these two species is the presence or absence of a tooth on the movable digit (MD) of chelicera. In this study, we conducted molecular analyses, using the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) marker, to determine whether K. ragusai is synonymous to K. aberrans or a valid species. DNA sequences of several populations of three other Kampimodromus species collected from Croatia and Italy were included to the study. ITS sequences of other Kampimodromus species deposited in the public GenBank database were also used. Results revealed a 5% genetic distance between K. ragusai and K. aberrans (Jukes & Cantor model). In the phylogenetic tree, K. ragusai is located in a different clade clearly separated from all other K. aberrans. Therefore, these results validate that K. ragusai and K. aberrans are altogether two distinct species. Presence or absence of a tooth on MD of chelicera is a reliable morphological character to differentiate these two species. Additionally, a GenBank sequence deposited as K. aberrans is identical to K. corylosus Kolodochka. This result clearly demonstrates the importance of combining molecular and morphological data to phytoseiid taxonomy, and the need to generate reliable data in publicly available gene bank databases.

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most important insect pests worldwide including Turkey. Although there are substantial data regarding species composition of Turkish B. tabaci populations, the situation is still not clear and further investigations are needed. Therefore, in this study, species and subgroups of B. tabaci collected from cotton fields in southwestern part of Turkey (Antalya, Aydın, Denizli, and Muğla) were determined using microsatellite analysis, AluI-based mtCOI polymerase chain reaction-random length polymorphism, and sequencing. Secondary endosymbionts were also determined using diagnostic species-specific PCR. Middle East Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1), Mediterranean (MED) Q1, and MED Q2 were the species and subgroups found in this study. The MED species (85.3%) were found to be more dominant than MEAM1. Species status of B. tabaci varied depending on the location. Although all samples collected from Aydın were found to be Q1, three species and subgroups were found in Muğla. Secondary endosymbionts varied according to species and subgroups. Arsenophonus was found only from Q2, while Hamiltonella was detected in MEAM1 and Q1. In addition, high Rickettsia and low Wolbachia infections were detected in MEAM1 and Q1 populations, respectively. In conclusion, for the first time, we report the presence and symbiotic communities of Q1 from Turkey. We also found that the symbiont complement of the Q1 is more congruent with Q1 from Greece than other regions of the world, which may have some interesting implications for movement of this invasive subgroup.

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Background Cold storage of reared natural enemies is important in terms of planning the release time and quantity, eliminating unpredicted demand increases, and reducing production costs. However, the tolerance of reared natural enemies at low temperatures varies depending on the species and needs to be determined. Eretmocerus mundus Mercet (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) is one of the most important natural enemies used in biological control of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in greenhouses. Results In a laboratory study, longevity, parasitism capacity and functional response of E. mundus adults obtained from 8-days cold-stored red-eyed E. mundus pupae at 10 °C with 45 ± 5% RH conditions were determined. Mean longevity obtained from stored E. mundus pupae of female and male were 23.6 and 16.2 days, respectively. However, parasitism capacity was negatively affected so that the total mean number of immature B. tabaci parasitized by an E. mundus female obtained from cold-stored pupae (13.6) was statistically lower than that obtained from the colony (26.8) reared at room temperature. Adults obtained from both non-stored and stored E. mundus pupae exhibited a type II functional response to increasing host density. Although cold storage did not alter the type of functional response, it negatively affected the maximum attack rate (α) and handling time (Th) of the parasitoid. The lowest maximum attack rate (1.56) and highest handling time (0.059) were obtained for adults of cold-stored E. mundus pupae. Conclusions The results obtained may contribute to the augmentative biological control of B. tabaci in greenhouses.

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