Descriptions of four new species of phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) associated with medicinal plants from Northern Himalayan Zone of West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT

Four new mite species of the family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata), namely, Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) hasnuhanae Karmakar & Molla sp. nov., Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) theae Karmakar & Molla sp. nov., Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) ramdhuraensis Karmakar & Molla sp. nov., and Phytoseius dumurae Karmakar & Molla sp. nov. are described based on specimens collected from Hasnuhana (Cestrum nocturnum L.: Solanaceae), Tea plant (Camellia sinensis L.: Theaceae), Ulatkambal plant (Abroma augustum (L.): Malvaceae), and Fig plant (Ficus carica L.: Moraceae) at the Northern Hill Zone of West Bengal located amidst the Central Himalayan Mountain range.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AC4F778D-1620-4612-B19E-2B26A8B80375

KEYWORDS:

• New species
• Typhlodromus (anthoseius)
• Phytoseius
• predatory mites
• Himalayan species

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Vice-Chancellor and Director of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya for providing facilities to carry out the work. We are grateful to Dr. Vikram Prasad, Founder, Indira Publishing House, West Bloomfield, Michigan, USA; to Dr. R. B. Halliday, Section Editor, Zootaxa, Canberra, Australia and to Professor Gilberto J. de Moraes, ESALQ, Piracicaba, Brazil for their inspiration, valuable suggestions and providing literature. The authors are grateful to Dr. Suvash Chandra Bala, Hafijur Rahaman and Promotha Bala for help in collection of the mite specimens, and Priyankar Mondal for help in acquiring digital drawings.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

No support of external grant received for conducting this research.