Phytoseiidae mites associated with Hevea spp. from the Amazon region: a hidden diversity under the canopy of native trees

Abstract

Despite the Amazon Forest being the largest tropical forest in the world, and cradle of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis), no studies have aimed to report the occurrence of mites associated with native trees from this ecosystem. Our survey investigates the phytoseiid mites associated with five species of native rubber trees from nine sites of the Amazon Forest, and also presents a major review of phytoseiid species from natural vegetation in Brazil. We found a total of 1305 mites, belonging to 30 species, of which seven were new to science, Amblydromalus akiri sp. nov., Amblyseius chicomendesi sp. nov., Amblyseius duckei sp. nov., Amblyseius manauara sp. nov., Iphiseiodes katukina sp. nov., Iphiseiodes raucuara sp. nov. and Typhlodromips igapo sp. nov.; beyond two new records for Brazil, Iphiseiodes kamahorae and Amblyseius martus. Our results emphasize the importance of Amazon native trees as an unexplored source of predator mites, which in turn may be further studied as biological control agents of pest mites on rubber trees. The impressive diversity, endemism and rate of new species found highlight the importance of studies on arthropod communities associated with the Amazon vegetation.

Key words:

• Acari
• Amblydromalus
• Amblyseius
• conservation
• Iphiseiodes
• new species
• predator
• tropical forest
• Typhlodromips

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr E. Franklin, Dr J.W. de Morais and collaborators from ‘Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônica' (INPA) for providing laboratory assistance and support for the fieldwork in Amazonas State; the post-graduate students, and staff from ‘Universidade Federal do Acre' (UFAC) for the valuable help in the fieldwork in Acre State; the staff from ‘Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agronômica' (EMBRAPA, Amazônia Ocidental), in particular to Dr Everton Rabelo Cordeiro for the permission and help in the fieldwork on EMBRAPA; to Dr Ronald Ochoa from National Insect and Mite Collection, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute (NMNH) for providing access to holotypes from NMNH used for comparison with the specimens considered in this study.

Associate Editor: Eirik Rindal

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by FAPESP, ‘Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo' by fellowship to F.M. Nuvoloni (Process. 2010/19935-1) and J.M. Rezende (Process. 2011/19890-0), and ‘Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico' (CNPq) (Proc. No 303435/2013–5), by fellowship and research grant to R.J.F. Feres.