Tenuipalpid mites from northern Iran and description of the male of Cenopalpus rubusi Khanjani 2012.

The Tenuipalpidae are small, slow-moving, flat, red or green phytophagous mites that, despite the economic importance of some species, has been studied much less than the Tetranychidae. They have a great number of host plants including cultivated plants, ornamentals, fruit crops and forest trees. The aim of this study was to determine the species composition of tenuipalpid mites in the northern part of Iran, Mazandaran province. More than 150 plant species belonging to 41 families were inspected for possible infestation with tenuipalpid mites, among which 28 plant species were infested. Most of the infested plants are new records for the respective mite species. A total of 14 species of tenuipalpid mites belonging to five genera were collected and identified. Though citrus is the major fruit crop grown in Mazandaran province, flat spider mites were not yet reported from it in this area. In addition to this faunistic study, a male of Cenopalpus rubusi, which was collected on Rubus persicus Boiss, is described for the first time


INTRODUCTION
Mites of the family Tenuipalpidae (Order: Trombidiformes), commonly known as flat mites, are worldwide in distribution. Some of them are plant feeders of considerable economic importance especially a few species are injurious to citrus, tea, grapes and ornamentals (Jeppson et al., 1975). About 1,100 species of tenuipalpids belonging to 38 genera have been described in this family (Mesa et al., 2009;Beard et al., 2013). These mites transmitted serious plant viruses in citrus, coffee, orchids and several woody ornamental plants (Chagas et al., 2003;Childers et al., 2003). Despite the economic impor-tance of the family Tenuipalpidae, these mites have been studied much less than the Tetranychidae and Phytoseiidae in Iran (Rahmani et al., 2008).
Reviewing literature revealed that up to now about 65 species of tenuipalpid mites belonging to 9 genera were reported from Iran (Beyzavi et al., 2013;Khanjani et al., 2013a). Tenuipalpid surveys were not yet studied in the Mazandaran province. Therefore, the major objective of this study was to determine the tenuipalpid species occurring in this region.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Infested leaves from several plant species in the Mazandaran Province were collected and those of each plant separately bagged in plastic bags and transferred to the laboratory on the same day. The leaves were carefully examined under a stereomicroscope to collecting false spider mites. The mites were removed from the infested plant leaves with a fine camel hair brush, preserved in 75 % ethanol, cleared in Nesbitt's fluid and mounted in Hoyer's medium. The slides were then dried in an oven at about 45-50°C for two weeks and then sealed with nail polish prior to examination. Mites were examined and drawn with a Nikon E600 research microscope equipped with a camera Lucida. Keys of Meyer (1979) and Khanjani et al. (2008;2012a, b;2013b) were used for the identification of species. Some specimens were sent to Drs. M. Khanjani (co-author) and E.A. Ueckermann of the ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa for identification or species confirmation. Voucher specimens are deposited in the Acarological Collection at Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran.
Setal notations used in the description of the male of Cenopalpus rubusi follows Lindquist (1985) and Mesa et al. (2009) as applied to the Tenuipalpidae in Khanjani et al. (2012b). Setae are measured from their insertion to their tips and the distances between setae represent the distances between their insertions. All measurements are given in micrometers (µm). Microsoft office 2007 was used to clean the figures.
Comments -This species was described as Aegyptobia meyerae Khosrowshahi and Arbabi, 1997 which had been preoccupied by the species described by Hatzinikolis and Panou, 1996. Therefore it was changed into A. kharazii (Mesa et al., 2009) and recently A. kharazii was considered as a junior synonym of A. beglarovi (Khanjani et al., 2012a). The host plant T. orientalis is a new record (Mesa et al., 2009).

Genus Brevipalpus Donnadieu, 1875
Brevipalpus californicus Banks, 1904 Brevipalpus browningi Baker, 1949  Previous records from Iran -This is the first record of this species from Iran.
Comments -This species is widely distributed in Iran . This is the first report of C. irani from Mazandaran province and the host plant, C. betulus is a new record for this species (Beyzavi et al., 2013).