A new species of spider mite, Oligonychus palus sp. nov. (Prostigmata: Tetranychidae), from tropical Australia

Abstract

A new spider mite, Oligonychus palus sp. nov., is described from banana in northern Australia. Comments are made about the validity of the subgenera within Oligonychus Berlese and the new species is compared with a similar Indian species O. sapienticolus Gupta.

The genus Oligonychus Berlese (Acari, Prostigmata, Tetranychidae): taxonomic assessment and a key to subgenera, species groups, and subgroups

“…Diagnosis. (Based on: Pritchard and Baker 1955;Tuttle and Baker 1968;Meyer 1974Meyer , 1987Beard et al 2003Beard et al , 2008Khanjani et al 2018). Empodia well developed, claw-like with proximoventral hairs (except male leg I with hairs modified into spur) that are as long as or shorter than empodial claw on most of legs; two pairs of duplex setae on tarsus I, distal and adjacent; opisthosoma with 11 pairs of dorsal setae (c 1-3 , d 1-2 , e 1-2 , f 1-2 , h 2-3 ; n.b.…”

“…The sub-genera are not always well distinguished and several morphological characters, such as the pattern of striae between dorsal setal pairs e 1 and f 1 on the female and the number of tactile setae on tibia I, have been found to be variable (Meyer 1987). Such variable characters cannot be used to reliably separate the subgenera of Oligonychus (Meyer 1987;Beard et al 2003Beard et al , 2008Li et al 2018). These sub-divisions were made for practical rather than phylogenetic reasons, and have resulted in a somewhat artificial classification (Helle et al 1981;Meyer 1987).…”

“…The authenticity of sub-generic division of the genus Oligonychus (Wainstein 1960;Tuttle and Baker 1968) always remains questionable, due to the use of inconsistent characters, e.g., striae pattern on dorsal opisthosoma and number of tactile setae on tibia I (Meyer 1974(Meyer , 1987Bolland et al 1998;Beard et al 2003Beard et al , 2008Khanjani et al 2018;Li et al 2018Li et al , 2019. So, to confirm the current taxonomic status of the six subgenera of Oligonychus suggested by Tuttle and Baker (1968), a comprehensive morphological investigation based on all known Oligonychus species is needed.…”

“…The presence of two pairs of para-anal setae (h 2 and h 3 ) is one of the important distinguishing character of Oligonychus (Lindquist 1985;Beard et al 2003Beard et al , 2008Seeman and Beard 2011;Arabuli and Gotoh 2018;Khanjani et al 2018;Li et al 2019). However, there are contradictions found among different taxonomists even when it comes to identifying the h 2 setae in Oligonychus species Baker 1952, 1955;Meyer 1974Meyer , 1987Jeppson et al 1975;Lindquist 1985;Bolland et al 1998;Knihinicki and Flechtmann 1999;Flechtmann and Etienne 2006;Beard et al 2008;Arabuli and Gotoh 2018;Khanjani et al 2018;Li et al 2019).…”

A new species of spider mite, Oligonychus neocastaneae sp. nov. (Acari: Tetranychidae), from Japan

“…All measurements are given in micrometers (µm) and correspond to the holotype followed by minimum and maximum values from paratypes and other specimens. The aedeagal morphological parameters of the new species were compared with O. castaneae based on the parameters provided by Beard (2008). Setal nomenclature and abbreviations on the body are according to Lindquist (1985).…”