مشخصات پژوهش

One of the greatest potential uses of halophytic plants such as Halocnemum strobilaceum (Pall.) M. Bieb. (Amaranthaceae: Salicornioideae) probably rests in their utilization as forage and fodder. It is particularly relevant for some countries such as Iran with serious soil salinity problems. Until now seven eriophyid species described from the plants of family Amarantaceae that among them four species belong to Aceria genus and none of them are from the plants of genus Halocnemum. During the study on Halocnemum strobilaceum (Pall.) M. Bieb. plant samples collected in Ajabshir region of East Azerbaijan province (Iran) on late July 2016, their eriophyoid mites were recovered by means of a modified washing method. The mites were slide mounted according to Baker et al. (1996). All morphological measurements were taken by means of a phase contrast microscope Olympus BX53 according to Amrine and Manson (1996) as modified by de Lillo et al. (2010). In result a species of Aceria genus identified, illustrated, investigated with the aid of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and is cosidered as Aceria sp. nov. This species is the first eriophyoid species recorded from Halocnemum plants. The new species compared with all species described from the plants of family Amarantaceae and showed similarities with Aceria amaranthi Abou-Awad & El- Banhawy, 1992 described from Amaranthus sp. in Dar El-Salam of Tanzania. A. amaranthi caused numerous galls on both leaf surface and malformation of the leaves, but the new species was vagrant in high population. The prodorsal shield pattern of new species composed of lines made by longitudinal slight bumps including median line with one or two V-shape mark at the basal part, complete admedian, first and second submedian lines and broken lateral lines but A. amaranthi had complete median, admedian and first and second submedian curved lines and two curved dashes between first and second submedian lines. These two species also differ in ventral