Augeriflechtmannia haloxyloni, MahdaviK & K & AsadiK & AugerK, 2022

MahdaviK, Sayed Mosayeb, K, Malihe Latifi, AsadiK, Mahdieh & AugerK, Philippe, 2022, A new species of Augeriflechtmannia (Prostigmata: Tetranychidae) from Haloxylon ammodendron (Amaranthaceae) in Iran and a key to the world species, Acarologia 62 (4), pp. 898-907 : 905

Augeriflechtmannia haloxyloni sp. nov. is similar to A. penisinuosus ( Auger & Flechtmann,

2003) in global shape of the aedeagus and leg chaetotaxy, but it can be distinguished from the latter by three features: In males, 1) the aedeagus bear a long sigmoid distal part A. in penisinuosus ( Fig. 3g) vs. short in A. haloxyloni sp. nov. ( Fig. 3a–f); 2) empodia I-II are different in A. penisinuosus vs. empodia I–II are similar among all the specimens of A.

haloxyloni we observed. In females: 3) the dorsal striae bear lobes in A. penisinuosus ( Fig. 6a)

vs. dorsal striae without lobes in A. haloxyloni .

As we found adults and juveniles together during sampling, indicating that the mite is active as reproduction takes place, the absence of lobes on the integument of female dorsal striations is a morphological feature specific to the new species that do not result from diapause-

inducing environmental conditions experienced by the specimens. Indeed, despite the mite were collected in two sampling events, in June and October, all the specimens examined are are devoid of lobes on the dorsal integument.

Despite some obvious variations in the aedeagus length, we assumed that all the specimens belong to the same species. In our opinion, there are three lines of evidence to consider these variations as intraspecific: First, similar variations are found among specimens collected in the same host in both localities: Kerman and Rafsanjan ( Figs. 3a–f and Table 1). Second, there are some intermediate forms between aedeagi with a longer and aedeagi with a shorter sigmoid distal end. Third, it is not possible to link variations in the morphology of the aedeagus to variations in other morphological characters or biological characteristics.