New records and complementary descriptions of three Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) species from Turkey

ABSTRACT

Three species of the family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata), Amblydromalus limonicus (Garman and McGregor), Neoseiulus fauveli (Athias-Henriot), and Typhlodromips sessor (De Leon), are reported for the first time from Turkey. The newly recorded species are redescribed and illustrated based on material collected from poplar trees, Populus spp. (Salicaceae), in Samsun Province on the Black Sea coast. Amblydromalus limonicus and T. sessor are mainly known from the Americas and are unexpected findings on poplar trees, as well as in the Turkish fauna. The third species, Neoseiulus fauveli, is known only from its original description from France. However, important morphological features, including dorsal setae lengths, cheliceral dentition, measurements, and the shape of macrosetae on legs, that are currently used to discriminate phytoseiid species, were missing in its original description. The presence of N. fauveli on Populus nigra L. in the present study is not surprising as many other species in the desertus species group of the genus Neoseiulus have been reported from species of Populus.

KEYWORDS:

• Predatory mites
• fauna
• taxonomy
• biological control
• poplar

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the first author’s Master’s thesis and was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation of Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, Turkey (Project number: PYO.ZRT.1904.21.016). The authors thank Prof. Dr. Hamdi G. Kutbay of Ondokuz Mayis University for his identification of the poplar trees and Dr. Gregory T. Sullivan of The University of Queensland for his comments and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ondokuz Mayis Üniversitesi [PYO.ZRT.1904.21.016].