Georgiobia Wainstein, 1960

Zhovnerchuk, Olga & Auger, Philippe, 2019, Spider mites (Acari: Tetranychidae) from the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve (Ukraine): faunistic survey, reinstatement of the genus Georgiobia Wainstein, 1960 and description of a new species, Zootaxa 4559 (2), pp. 321-338 : 324

Georgiobia Wainstein, 1960

Georgiobia Wainstein, 1960:217 ; Tuttle & Baker, 1968:58; Smith Meyer, 1974: 115; Tuttle et al., 1976: 25; Smith Meyer, 1987: 39; Baker & Tuttle, 1994: 108. Type-species: Petrobia shirakensis Reck, 1956 .

Generic diagnosis (female): Empodial claws and empodium pad-like, the latter with two rows of tenent hairs; tectal setae (tc ’- tc ’’) may be absent on tarsi; peritreme developed in a distal anastomosis of variable size; propodosoma with 3 pairs of setae, medial propodosomal plate present, dorsal part of hysterosoma with 10 pairs of setae; dorsal body setae elongate, serrate, all borne on tubercles, setae c 3 moved in lateral position, more or less posterior to c 2 setae, forming an almost longitudinal arrangement with c 2 and e 2 setae.

Species transferred here to Georgiobia . Following the reinstatement of the genus Georgiobia several species are reinstated or moved to the genus Georgiobia : G. shirakensis ( Reck, 1956) , reinstated combination, G. richteri ( Bagdasarian, 1954) , reinstated combination, G. transvaalensis Smith Meyer, 1974 , reinstated combination, G. pongolana Smith Meyer, 1974 , reinstated combination, G. caesariata Smith Meyer, 1974 , reinstated combination, G. crassata ( Smith Meyer, 1974) , new combination, G. curvula ( Smith Meyer, 1974) , new combination and G. loosti ( Smith Meyer, 1974) , new combination. Although A. sisianensis ( Bagdasarian, 1959) was previously placed in the genus Georgiobia by Wainstein (1960a), we consider that it still belongs to the genus Aplonobia because it does not show the typical displacement of c 3 setae into the lateral position and it complies with the other characters of this genus.

Surveys. In the slide collection of L. Kolodochka and L. Bondarenko we found 39 slides with tetranychid mites and 17 slides were prepared from the wet collection of spider mites of S. G. Pogrebnyak (see Table I for details).

In 2015, among the 113 samples we collected, tetranychid mites were found only in 55 of them. The 417 specimens were mounted on 98 preparations: 69 slides with 299 specimens from Solenoozerny area, 14 slides with 52 specimens from Ivano-Rybalchansky area and 15 slides with 66 specimens from Volyzhyn forest.

Altogether 20 spider mite species belonging to 11 genera are reported: 12 species were found in the slide and wet collections, 14 species were collected in the recent survey including a new species.

*Black Sea Biosphere Reserve