Oligonychus conostegiae Tuttle, Baker & Abbatiello, 1974

Mushtaq, Hafiz Muhammad Saqib, Alatawi, Fahad Jaber, Kamran, Muhammad & Flechtmann, Carlos Holger Wenzel, 2021, The genus Oligonychus Berlese (Acari, Prostigmata, Tetranychidae): taxonomic assessment and a key to subgenera, species groups, and subgroups, ZooKeys 1079, pp. 89-127 : 89

8. Oligonychus conostegiae Tuttle, Baker & Abbatiello, 1974

Oligonychus conostegia Tuttle, Baker & Abbatiello, 1974: 15.

Host and distribution.

Conostegia xalapensis ( Melastomataceae ); Mexico.

Remarks.

Oligonychus conostegiae Tuttle, Baker & Abbatiello was briefly described from only females, and details of the male were absent in both the original ( Tuttle et al. 1974) and subsequent description ( Tuttle et al. 1976). The authors compared it with the female of O. gambelli (described from USA on Quercus gambelii , Fagaceae ), and both species differed based on the often variable number of tactile setae proximal to the proximal duplex on tarsus I ( Tuttle et al. 1974). Later, O. conostegiae was separated from females of O. platani (described from USA on Platanus occidentalis , Platanaceae ) in a diagnostic key, using differences in the comparative lengths of the members of the duplex setae ( McGregor 1950; Tuttle et al. 1976). These three species are distributed in similar geographical localities ( Migeon and Dorkeld 2021), and their separation requires further taxonomic scrutiny. The species identity of O. conostegiae will be clear after collecting and describing the male from the type host and locality.