Morphological and molecular characteristics, host plants and natural enemies of the recently recognized Tetranychus okinawanus (Acari: Tetranychidae) in Taiwan

Abstract

Tetranychus okinawanus Ehara have recently been found in Taiwan. To date they have only been collected by the authors from several locations in the counties of Pingtung, Taitung, and Hualien and from one spot in Nantou County by Takafuji, all from non-crop plants. The authors examined the specific characteristics and made sketches of the leg chaetotaxy, the palpal terminal of both sexes and the male aedeagus. Collection records and observations of body color variations as well as a list of natural enemies are also provided. The ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of this mite was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. The sequences are extremely rich in AT content (67.7%), and are identical among the tested individuals and identical to the neucleotide sequence of the ITS2 region of Tetranychus okinawanus reported from Japan.