Evsel Denizhan1, Rosita Monfreda2, Sultan Cobanoglu1 and Enrico de Lillo2
1. Plant Protection Department, University of Ankara, Agricultural Faculty, Diskapi/Ankara, Turkey, (e-mail:evsel_denizhan@hotmail.com); 2. Dipartimento di Biologia e Chimica Agroforestale e Ambientale, sez. Entomologia e Zoologia, via Amendola, 165/a, 70126 Bari, Italy (e-mail: delillo@agr.uniba.it).
ABSTRACT - Turkish populations of eriophyid mites infesting Malvaceae, Asteraceae and Caryophyllaceae were examined. Analyses of morphometric data, induced symptoms, and comparisons to the morphology and descriptions of known species indicated presence of three new species which are described and illustrated. These are: Aceria egmirae n. sp. From Althaea rosae (L.) Cavan, A. tinctoriae n. sp. from Anthemistinctoria L. and A. ankarensis n. sp. from Dianthus chinensis L. No injuries were detected on the host plants.
Key words - Acari, Eriophyidae, Aceria, new species, Turkey.
INTRODUCTION
About 15 species belonging to Aceria Keifer, 1944 have been associated with the Malvaceae; no record is available for Althaea. More than 100 species of Aceria have been reported from the Asteraceae, and none have been found on Anthemis species. Similarly, 7 Aceria are known on the Caryophyllaceae but none have been associated with Dianthus chinensis L. (Amrine and Stasny, 1994; Amrine and de Lillo, personal databases). The Aceria spp. on the Asteraceae are morphologically very similar and careful examination allows us to distinguish
them as a group, which is similar to the Aceria associated with Centaurea (also Asteraceae) (de Lillo et al., 2003). Unfortunately, several descriptions are rather scanty and at least a review of the data in the literature is needed; in some cases the mites should be collected and redescribed. The Turkish eriophyoid fauna has been poorly studied (Trotter, 1901; Gerini, 1971; Özkan et al., 1988 and 1994; Çobanoglu, 1992; de Lillo and Sobhian, 1996; Özman and Toros, 1997; de Lillo et al., 2003a). Only a few references are present in the Fauna Europaea check list (de Lillo, 2004). The senior author (ED) initiated a large survey of the eriophyoid mites of Turkey, especially around Ankara, producing many new Turkish records and discovering many new species, a few of which are described and illustrated here.
