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Leptus (Leptus) mahtabaesp. nov. (Acari: Erythraeidae), collected as an ectoparasite of Mesobuthus rakhshanii (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeast Iran, is described and illustrated based on the morphological characteristics of the larvae. The position of solenidia on Ti II of Charletonia damavandica Karimi Irvanlou, Kamali & Talebi, 2002, is corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides information on the genus Erythraeus and its subgenera, specifically focusing on the larval stage. It discusses the subgenus Erythraeus, which is divided into two groups based on the number of basifemoralae, and Erythraeus phalangoides is classified in the first group. The article presents new data on larval specimens of E. phalangoides and transfers Erythraeus walii to the subgenus Erythraeus. It includes measurements and setae counts for E. phalangoides and compares E. walii to other species within the Erythraeus genus. The authors express gratitude to the South Australian Museum for allowing them to study type specimens and provide a list of references for further reading. [Extracted from the article]

Atractothrombium joharchii sp. nov. ectoparasitic on an unknown Tachinidae (Insecta: Diptera) is described from Alborz province, Iran. A re-definition of the genus Atractothrombium is presented. A key to the larval genera of Microtrombidiinae of the world with two median scuta and anterior scutum with longitudinal striations is given. Leg setal formula of two species of Fissitrombium described by Southcott (1994) are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Nothrotrombidium sadeghii Noei and Kohansal sp. nov. (Acari: Trombidiformes: Trombellidae) ectoparasitic on Erebidae, Noctuidae, Geometridae, Plutellidae (Lepidoptera) and Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) in Hotel Kouhestan and Band-e dareh regions, Chahardeh, Chahkand, Chahkandan, Esfahrood, Giuk, Noferest, Rach and Razg villages, Birjand city, South Khorasan province, Iran, is described and illustrated. A key to world larval species of Nothrotrombidium is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torrenticola meridionalis Di Sabatino & Cicolani, 1990 was originally described from Italy and later has been noted in different parts of the Balkans. Next researches, based on molecular data, have shown that it is a species-complex. This work provides new data on Torrenticola cf. meridionalis based on DNA barcodes of specimens from Poland and confirms previous assumptions about the Torrenticola meridionalis-complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Leptus, L. baspinarisp. nov., is described and illustrated from larvae collected via pitfall traps (off-host) from Akçaova (Seferler) reservoir, Gökbel mountain, Aydin Province, Türkiye. The new species belongs to phalangii species group and killingtoni species subgroup. Leptus dubius Paoli and L. pouryayevalii Hakimitabar, Saboori & Fadaei are reported for the first time from Türkiye, and L. dubius Paoli is redescribed and illustrated based on Turkish specimens. New metric data are given for L. pouryayevalii. Keys to killingtoni, torresianus, dubius, and hospeticus species subgroups are presented, and definitions of dubius, bogoriacus and pasopaicus species subgroups are corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mites and insects have different kinds of relationships with each other, which is very important to be studied. One of these relationships is parasitism, which is seen between larvae of terrestrial Parasitengona mites (Acari: Trombidiformes) and different active stages of insects. This study aimed to determine parasitic mites associated with the solitary wasps of the family Crabronidae. The presence of mites was investigated on 3247 wasp individuals belonging to 250 species from 53 genera. Among them, 32 specimens representing 23 species were parasitized by Leptus Latreille mite larvae. As a result, a total of 58 mite larvae were detected and two species, Leptus rosellae Haitlinger, 1999 and L. tridentatus Saboori, Hakimitabar & Khademi, 2018, were identified. The latter one has been reported for the first time from Türkiye and all mite-parasitized wasp species are new host records of both mite species. This study is the first record of the parasite-host relationship between the family Crabronidae and the genus Leptus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of spider mite counterattack and defensive behavior and their effects on predatory mites have only been investigated in social species. Here, we have examined the defensive success of Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) male individuals in the presence of Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae) juveniles. We recorded the number of T. urticae eggs eaten (killed) within three days along with monitoring the predator (dead/alive) status. The defensive behavior of T. urticae male was considered as success when the predator had consumed less than 50% of the prey eggs and was killed at the end of the experimental period. Our main hypothesis was that introducing an additional male would increase the defensive success rate. Results showed that the success rate was significantly higher in the patches with two T. urticae male individuals compared to one. No significant difference were observed among the egg-eating (killing) rate within the three consecutive days of experiment in patches with one male, while in the treatments with an additional male, the egg killing rate of the third day was significantly higher than that on the first day. We also hypothesized that male T. urticae with significant higher rate of defensive success should be morphologically different in comparison with the defeated ones. We found no significant differences in the length of chelicera, first leg and body (length and width) between the successful versus defeated males. We concluded that T. urticae can attack the predator, but the weapon by which the success happens remained unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the occurrence and the identification of tick species infesting wild songbirds in northern Iran. Totally, 342 songbirds belonging to 15 families and 37 species were captured and examined for tick infestation during 2015-2016. Of which, 70 specimens were infested by ticks (infestation rate = 20.46%). Three tick species detached from examined birds and identified as follow: Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758), Hyalomma sp., and Rhipicephalus sp. The most common one was I. ricinus. In all infected birds, collected ticks were in immature stages and the number of specimens of the larval stage was more than in the nymphal stage, and no adult tick was found. Following songbirds were introduced as new hosts: Petronia petronia (Linnaeus, 1766), Gymnoris xanthocollis (Burton, E, 1838), Hippolais pallida (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833), Emberiza calandra Linnaeus, 1758, Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766), Oenanthe picata (Blyth, 1847), O. pleschanka (Lepechin, 1770), Rhodospiza obsoleta (Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823), Serinus pusillus (Pallas, 1811), and Ficedula parva (Bechstein, 1792) for I. ricinus. The overall mean intensity and mean abundance were 4.6 and 0.95, respectively. The highest mean intensity, 12.18 ticks per bird, was recorded from Common Starling. The highest prevalence of infestation was recorded on Common Blackbird (53%). The most prevalence of tick infestation occurred in the Turdidae family (37.83%) followed by Passeridae (33.33%) and Sturnidae (28.57%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New records of water mites from Iran and Turkey revealed by DNA barcoding are presented. DNA barcodes were recovered from 44 water mite specimens morphologically assigned to 18 species. The DNA barcoding data for the twelve species were uploaded into the BOLD database. One species of the Hygrobates longiporus-complex, H. thori Pešić & Smit sp. nov. is described as new for science and Hydrodroma persicaPešić & Saboori, 2012 is reported as new for Turkey. We propose to lower the taxonomic status of Hydrodroma golestanica to a subspecies of H. torrenticola, i.e. H. torrenticola golestanicanov. stat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 60,000 species of Acari have been described in the world, many more await discovery and description. Persian Journal of Acarology has been one of the important journals for publishing articles on all aspects of acarology during the last 10 years (2012–2021). It published 315 papers including 248 articles, 63 correspondence articles, one monograph, and three book reviews by 188 authors during this decade, with descriptions of 66 new species. Four new genera were described in PJA in 2015 and 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first descriptions of the male of Hypoaspis maryamae Joharchi and Halliday and heteromorphic male of Cosmolaelaps rectangularis Sheals, collected on scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and from a Lasius sp. nest (Formicidae), respectively, in Taleqan, Iran. Moreover, we supplement the description of female Hypoaspis maryamae with further morphometric data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf domatia as a habitat-produced structure is considered to moderate the interaction intensity among guild parties. We studied whether domatia of sweet pepper (Capsicum annum) leaves could reduce the adverse effects of predation of a phytoseiid on behalf of an intraguild predatory mite on a phytoseiid intraguild prey, and a tetranychid extraguild prey. In the domatia-provided treatments where Amblyseius swirskii (Athias-Henriot) females were considered as predator, significantly fewer Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot juveniles were killed, and eaten in comparison with the treatments without domatia. The predation rate of A. swirskii was affected by the domatia i.e. the number of eaten P. persimilis was significantly lower on patches with four domatia rather than those with no domatium, however, no significant difference was observed between those in patches with two, and four domatia. Both natural, and artificial domatia could reduce the predation rate on P. persimilis juveniles. When P. persimilis females were considered as predators, the number of A. swirskii killed juveniles was affected neither by presence nor by the number of leaf domatia. The number of eaten Tetranychus urticae Koch eggs/larvae in patches with either of the intraguild predator species was not affected by the presence, the number, and the type of domatia. We suggest that leaf domatia could affect the survival of phytoseiid predatory mites as the guild participants even when the highly aggressive intraguild predator, A. swirskii, enters such structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mite family Ameroseiidae with 138 valid species is presently classified in the superfamily Ascoidea of the order Mesostigmata. Seventy-two species have been described based on type specimens and no report has been done since then, while the other 66 species have been frequently reported from around the world. The objective of this study is to provide information about distribution and habitat of the latter group, which are listed in twelve genera: Ameroseius (21 species), Kleemannia (15), Neocypholaelaps (8), Epicriopsis (7), Hattena and Sertitympanum (4 each), Ameroseiella (2), Afrocypholaelaps, Asperolaelaps, Brontispalaelaps, Pseudoameroseius and Sinoseius (1 each). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abiotic factors, such as temperature, humidity, soil elements, along with biotic factors affect terrestrial arthropod communities. Since the application of agricultural fertilizers with the entrance of different elements causes changes in the soil physicochemical conditions, fertilizers may cause fluctuation in the population density of edaphic arthropods. Given this opinion, in this research, the effect of common fertilizers on the population fluctuation and distribution pattern of the predatory mite Leitneria pugio (Karg) was investigated. The experimental treatments were granular urea fertilizer with two doses (200 and 400 kg per ha), poultry manure, zinc sludge (to simulate the accumulation of zinc sulfate fertilizer in the soil), and control in five blocks. Humidity, pH, temperature, NO3– and NO2–, and elements (organic Carbon, K, Na, P, Fe, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni, Zn, and As) of soil were measured, and their relationship with the predatory mite population was determined by Pearson correlation coefficient. Iwao's patchiness, Taylor's power law, and Morisita's coefficient of dispersion were used for determining the spatial distribution pattern of L. pugio. The spatial pattern of L. pugio was aggregated, and the highest population density of the predator was observed in December in zinc sludge and control treatments, and in May, in zinc sludge treatment, on the average 60, 35, and 110 per m2, respectively. The relationship between mite's population and Cu and Pb was significantly positive, and L. pugio had a significantly negative relationship with P, NO3– and soil temperature. Nevertheless, the application of different fertilizers did not affect the spatial distribution pattern of the predator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to determine the mites parasitizing aphids in the park and gardens in Aydin city between March 2019 and June 2020. As a result, a total of 1276 mite larvae were collected and 12 species were identified. Eight species, Allothrombium clavatum, A. polikarpi (Trombidiidae), Erythraeus (Erythraeus) phalangoides, E. (E.) uhadi, Erythraeus (Zaracarus) coleopterus, E. (Z.) iranicus, E. (Z.) kurdistaniensis (Erythraeidae) and Lassenia novoseljensis (Tanaupodidae), are new records to the Turkish fauna. The larvae of the mites were ectoparasites of 10 different aphid species: Aphis (Aphis) craccivora, A. (A.) nerii, Aulacorthum (Aulacorthum) solani, Brachycaudus (Appelia) tragopogonis, Hyalopterus pruni, Hyperomyzus (Hyperomyzus) lactucae, Macrosiphoniella (Macrosiphoniella) sanborni, Myzus (Nectarosiphon) persicae, Uroleucon (Uroleucon) sonchi, U. (U.) aeneum (Hemiptera: Aphididae). Erythraeus (E.) ankaraicus was the most common with a rate of 42.4% followed by A. triticium with 22.9% and E.(E.)phalangoideswith 19.7%. Most of the mites were collected from Uroleucon (U.) sonchi with a rate of 69.4%, followed by H. pruni with 8.5% and Aulacorthum (A.) solani with 6.0%. The mites were collected mostly in the spring with 86.9% and of which 51.9% was obtained in May. Allothrombium clavatumis also re-described and some data for collected species are corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leptus (Leptus) pouryayevalii sp. nov. (Acari: Erythraeidae), collected by shaking the leaves of weeds on white tray (off host) from Koushk Bala village, Chalous road, Alborz Province, Iran, is described and illustrated based on larva. This species belongs to the sudanensis species group and hospeticus species subgroup which can be identified based on the following characters: TFe I without solenidion, Ge I with two solenidia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, larva of Abrolophus bochkovisp. nov. collected from Qazvin province is described and illustrated. A key to larval species of Abrolophus of the world with a comb-like seta on the palpal tarsus is presented. Moreover, A. karamani Haitlinger & Šundić, is considered as a junior synonym of A. aitapensis (Southcott 1948). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One new phyllocoptine species and two eriophyine species collected in Norther-West Iran are described and illustrated: Aculops shalchii Lotfollahi sp. nov. (Phyllocoptinae) from Sweet Clover, Melilotus indicus (L.) All. (Fabaceae), Eriophyes euphorbiae (Nalepa, 1891) from Euphorbia boissieriana (Woronow) Prokh. (Euphorbiaceae) and Aceria rubiae (Canestrini, 1897) from Rubia tinctorum L. (Rubiaceae). Our supplementary data on morphology of A. rubiae and E. euphorpbiae indicate that they both have a thin translucent supracapitular plate situated below the frontal lobe of the prodorsal shield. Data from literature suggest A. rubiae and E. euphorbiae to be gall-forming species, however no visible damages causing by these mites were found in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The larva, deutonymph and adult of Calyptostoma seemani Masoumi & Saboori sp. nov. (Trombidiformes: Calyptostomatidae) are described from the Kandovan region, Alborz province, Iran. Larvae were reared from eggs laid by adults kept at room temperature in plastic pots. A key to larval and post-larval species of Calyptostoma of the world and corrections in the description of C. gorganica are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity is an important factor in soil quality and functionality. Physical and chemical changes during agricultural operations influence on soil biodiversity. Tillage and irrigation significantly change the life of soil microorganisms. The current study was conducted in Khodabandeh County during the wheat growing season. The effect of the first treatment (two tillage systems: conventional and no-tillage systems) and the second treatment (months) in two years on the biodiversity of oribatid mites, were investigated in irrigated and rain-fed wheat farms. Twelve samples were collected randomly per each sampling time during 21 April, 5 June and 30 July 2014 and 10 May, 12 June and 31 July 2015 coinciding with tillering stage, stem elongation and harvesting. Twelve species from eight families and 12 genera were identified. Among them, Opiella nova with 24.4% relative abundance was the abundant species in 2014 and Rhinopia bipectinata with 27.5% was the abundant species in 2015. The highest value of the Shannon-Wiener diversity index was observed in the irrigated no-tillage (I-NT) system. The statistical results of the ANOVA test showed a significant difference in the Shannon-Wiener diversity index among the four systems. Shannon-Wiener diversity index in the I-NT system had a significant difference with the I-CT system (irrigated-conventional tillage). There were no significant differences between I-CT and I-NT in terms of species richness index while differences between I-NT and R-CT systems and between R-NT and R-CT systems were significant. Also, results showed that species richness index at the time of tillering stage was significantly higher than that of stem elongation. The interaction between two treatments did not show a significant difference. There was no significant difference between the two years, so the results of the two years were merged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Torrenticola Piersig, 1896 is a common water mite group in the running waters in all biogeographical regions except Antarctica and Australasia. In the present study we used an integrative taxonomic approach by applying partial COI sequences (DNA-barcodes) to describe a new species of the genus Torrenticola, T. dowlingi Pešić sp. nov. from Iran. Morphologically, the new species is most similar to T. laskai Di Sabatino, 2009 from which it differs by the larger dimensions of idiosoma and genital field. The K2P distance that separated the new species from T. laskai was amounted to 3.98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species Empitrombium prasadi Saberi-Riseh & Saboori n. sp. (Acari: Microtrombidiidae) is described and illustrated based on larvae extracted from soil, i.e. off their host. A key to the five species based on larvae is provided and the formula of dorsal idiosomal setae of E. pesici is corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Leptus (larvae) is revised based on type specimens and other specimens from species and locations worldwide. A total of 220 species were identified and divided into 8 morpho-groups, and 40 subgroups of species; the following synonymies were also made: Leptus (Leptus) eslamizadehi as a junior synonym of L. (L.) trimaculatus, L. (L.) ilzae as a junior synonym of L. (L.) kyushuensis, L. (L.) laplandicus as a junior synonym of L. (L.) clethrionomydis, L. (L.) alopecurus as a junior synonym of L. (L.) alvimordax, L. (L.) annikae as a junior synonym of L. (L.) cercopius, L. (L.) welbourni as a junior synonym of L. (L.) ghiradellae, L. (L.) laviniacus as a junior synonym of L. (L.) agenori, L. (L.) machilidis as a junior synonym of L. (L.) albertensis, L. (L.) gyas as a junior synonym of L. (L.) meloidarum, L. (L.) coloanensis as a junior synonym of L. (L.) astrubali, and L. (L.) sidorchukae as a junior synonym of L. (L.) maldonadoicus. In addition, tibial and tarsal chaetotactic maps are shown, leg chaetotaxy is discussed, and keys to species groups, subgroups, and species are included. We amended and provided new morphological data for 109 species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water mites of the Hygrobates fluviatilis complex are common in Palaearctic inhabiting mainly running and slowly flowing waters. In this study, we examined the specimens collected in a stream in Golestan Province of Iran which is currently the easternmost distribution limit of the latter species complex. We used a fragment of the mtDNA COI gene and the D2 region of 28S rDNA to test the genetic structure. Molecular analyses revealed presence of two new well-supported species with a mean genetic divergence of 12.80% and 14.66% COI, respectively, from their closest relatives. Phylogenetic analysis based on COI and nuclear DNA data placed H. grabowskiisp. nov. as the sister species of H. persicus, and H. uliisp. nov. as the sister species of H. turcicus. Discriminant statistical analysis revealed that the two newly discovered species could be separated on the basis of morphometric characters, but robust morphological differences were not found. Yet we were able to show that diversity in water mites is underestimated and that species delimitation requires an integrative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]