Eotetranychus Oudemans, 1931

Beard, Jennifer J., Beaulieu, Frédéric, Knee, Wayne & Gotoh, Tetsuo, 2024, The six-spotted spider mite, Eotetranychus sexmaculatus (Riley) (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and USA: a revised morphological and molecular-based concept, synonyms, and related species, Zootaxa 5432 (3), pp. 349-378 : 356-358

Eotetranychus Oudemans

Eotetranychus Oudemans, 1931: 224 .

Type species: Trombidium tiliarium Hermann, 1804 , by original designation (but erroneously referred to as Acarus telarius Linnaeus, 1758 ).

Short diagnosis (simplified from Seeman et al., 2017) for all stages unless stated.

Tribe Tetranychini (sensu Gutierrez 1985) with: opisthonotum with 12 pairs of setae (c1–3, d1–2, e1–2, f1–2, h1–3; n.b. h2–3 are usually posteroventral); dorsal body setae usually as long or longer than distance to bases of setae in next row; dorsal opisthosoma with mostly transverse striae, with some longitudinal striae laterally; two pairs of pseudanal setae (ps1–2; vs Palmanychus having only one pair); tarsus I with two pairs of adjacent duplex setae, usually approximately midway along segment (only one pair in larvae); empodium split into two sets of three proximoventral hairs, with proximal pair of hairs thicker than other two pairs (except often male tarsus I, and sometimes tarsus II, with proximoventral hairs reduced, partly fused and somewhat claw-like); male aedeagus variable in shape.

Remarks. Seeman et al. (2017) provided a thorough taxonomic history for Eotetranychus and related genera including: Mononychellus , Palmanychus , Platytetranychus and Schizotetranychus .

Species groups have been proposed by various authors (e.g. Pritchard & Baker 1955; Tuttle et al. 1976) and are distinguished using the following characters: (1) the orientation of striae on the genital flap and in the pregenital region (immediately anterior to genital flap); (2) the number of tactile setae on the tibia II, which ranges from 5–8 setae; (3) the shape of the aedeagus; (4) the shape of the distal portion of the peritremes; (5) the number of proximal tactile setae on tarsus I; (6) the length and shape of opisthosomal setae. In addition to the dimensions of the palp spinneret (suζ), these characters also represent the main variation between species in the Tetranychini .