Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) kerkirae Swirski & Ragusa, 1976

Tixier, Marie-Stephane, Auger, Philippe, Migeon, Alain, Douin, Martial, Fossoud, Amandine, Navajas, Maria & Arabuli, Tea, 2021, Integrated taxonomy supports the identification of some species of Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Georgia, Acarologia 61 (4), pp. 824-844 : 838-839

Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) kerkirae Swirski & Ragusa

Typhlodromus kerkirae Swirski & Ragusa 1976: 101 .

Anthoseius kerkirae, Rivnay & Swirski 1980: 177 .

Typhlodromus kerkyrae [sic], Papaioannou-Souliotis 1981: 41.

Amblydromella kerkirae, Moraes et al. 1986: 165 .

Amblydromella (Aphanoseia) kerkirae , Denmark & Welbourn 2002: 308.

Specimens examined. At Telavi (5 kms from West Telavi) (41.9283° N, 45.4241° E): 1 ♀

on Salvia verticillata L. ( Lamiaceae ) and 2 ♀♀ on Rubus sp. (Rosaceae) , at Tbilisi (240 David Aghmashenebeli Alley) (41.8068° N, 44.7668° E): 1 ♀ on Eryngium caeruleum L. ( Apiaceae ).

Previous records. Croatia, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Spain, Turkey.

Measurements of female (1 specimen: voucher molecular specimen in “best” state)

Dorsum. Dorsal shield 315 long and 135 wide, reticulated throughout, with six solenostomes (gd2, gd4, gd6, gd8 and gd9), 18 pairs of dorsal setae and two pairs of sub-lateral setae: j1 20, j3 22, j4 15, j5 15, j6 18, J2 23, J5 8, z2 20, z3 25, z4 20, z5 18, Z4 32, Z5 52, s4 25, s6

30, S2 30, S4 30, S5 27, r3 18 and R1 18 in length. All setae smooth except Z5 lightly barbed.

Peritreme. Eextending nearly reaching the bases of the setae j1.

Venter. Sternal shield with three pairs of setae and two pairs of poroids; one pair of sternal setae (st 4) on small metasternal platelets; posterior margin straight. Distances between st1–st3

not visible, st2–st2 not visible, st5–st5 63. Metapodal shields not visible due to mountings (DNA voucher specimen). Ventrianal shield with four pairs of pre-anal setae JV1, JV2, JV3,

ZV2 and a pair of small circular pre-anal pores (gv3) present, at level of setae JV3, posterior or slightly postero-paraxial to setae JV2. Integument surrounding ventrianal shield with four pairs of setae ZV1, ZV3, JV4 and JV5 ; ventrianal shield 98 long, 75 wide at level of anterior corners, and 63 wide at level of anus. JV5 33 long.

Legs. Legs IV with one macrosetae on the basitarsus 27. Genu II with seven setae (2–2/0, 2/0–1), chaetotaxy of the Genu III not clearly visible (leg folded).

Chelicera. Fixed digit 28 long; and movable digit 23 long. Dentition not visible because chelicerae closed.

Spermatheca. Spermatheca with campanulate calyx 13 long and 8 wide, with an atrium incorporated at the basis of the cervix.

Remarks. The morphological features reported above are in line with those reported by Tixier et al. (2019) for T. (A.) kerkirae ( Table 3). Four DNA sequences were obtained for CytB, one for 12S and two for the COI fragments. The Genbank database only includes CytB sequences for T. (A.) kerkirae (accession number: MK014094 ), which have 15.4% –

16.1% divergence with sequences from our specimens from Georgia. In contrast, the mean distance between the four Georgian specimens is 0.25%. Although the genetic distance between the French and Georgian specimens is high, it is lower than the intraspecific variation already observed for species of the sub-family Typhlodrominae and the genus Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) (i.e. 21.7% for T. (A.) rhenanoides in Tixier et al. 2019). The COI and 12S

rRNA sequences newly included in the Genbank database will serve as references for further molecular identification of this species.