Notes on Neoseiulus paspalivorus (De Leon) and Proprioseiopsis messor (Wainstein) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) collected in Iran

Neoseiulus paspalivorus is a new record for Iranian mite fauna. It is re-described and illustrated. Some setal lengths of Proprioseiopsis messor collected in Iran show deviations from those of the holotype and re-descriptions from the other countries. This species is re-described and illustrated based on the material collected in Iran.


INTRODUCTION
Members of the family Phytoseiidae are important predaceous mites feeding on phytophagous mites and small insects (Gerson et al. 2003;McMurtry 1984). Despite studies carried out in other parts of Iran, fauna of phytoseiids in the Fars Province is poorly known. We thus conducted a survey to determine the faunistic composition of phytoseiid species in this province.
This paper aims to re-describe two species. One re-description was carried out for Neoseiulus paspalivorus (De Leon) as it is the first record of this species from Iran. The other re-description was carried out for Proprioseiopsis messor (Wainstein) to show some morphological differences with the holotype and other re-descriptions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Mites were extracted during 5 -7 days from the field-collected samples using Berlese funnel. The phytoseiid mites were cleared in lactophenol and mounted in Hoyer's medium. Drawings were made with the aid of a camera lucida (drawing tube) attached to an Olympus phase contrast microscope. The setal notations used follow Lindquist and Evans (1965) as adapted by Rowell et al. (1978) to phytoseiid mites. All measurements are given in micrometers (µm). The mean of the measurements is given first followed by the range in parentheses. The classification systems follow those of Chant and McMurtry (2003, 2005. The voucher specimens of the two species presented in this paper were deposited in the Acari collection of Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (Entomology Department) and MITOX.
Female -One specimen measured.
Remarks -Members of the species group paspalivorus are mainly characterized by having the dorsal shield strongly reticulate and narrow, usually with a shoulder at the level of r 3 and by having ventral setae very short (Chant and McMurtry 2003). One more character that should be considered for this species group is the reticulation on genital shield. Chant and McMurtry (2003) listed 14 nominal species in the paspalivorus species group suggesting N. baraki (Athias-Henriot 1966) and N. benjamini (Schicha 1981) as possible synonyms of N. paspalivorus. Zannou et al. (2006) treated N. baraki and N. benjamini as valid species and separated N. benjamini from the other closely related species by having seta ST 4 off metasternal shield. This character was possibly taken from the original description of Schicha (1981) without examining the type material. In re-describing N. benjamini, Ueckermann and Loots (1988)

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Ostovan H. et al. lar to those of the holotype and re-described specimens (Congdon 2002;Ferragut et al. 2010;Livshitz and Kuznetsov 1972;Moraes et al. 2007;Papadoulis and Emmanouel 1991;Schicha 1983;Schuster and Pritchard 1963;Swirski et al. 1998;Van der Merwe 1968;Wainstein 1960). However, the dorsal setae j 3 and z 4 have longer lengths compare to those of the other populations of P. messor (Table 1). Wainstein (1960) did not mention the details of chelicerae. In the re-descriptions of P. messor, there is a mixed report of fixed digit of chelicerae of having either 3 (e.g. Livshitz and Kuznetsov 1972) or 4 teeth (e.g. Moraes et al. 2007). The specimens collected in Iran clearly show 3 teeth on fixed digit of chelicerae (Figure 3).

CONCLUSION
Re-describing species based on strains from multiple geographic regions would increase our knowledge of intraspecific variation, thus making descrip-tions more robust and meaningful, therefore facilitating species identification. Furthermore, diagnostic molecular data increasingly complements morphological characters, providing additional diagnostic power, and is essential where morphology is unenlightening. Less explored areas include biological characteristics and cross-breeding studies, but these also can yield important supporting data. Considered together, these data would enable taxonomists to overcome the difficulty on what characters should be considered as intra-or interspecific variation.