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Abstract
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To date, 10 species of eriophyoid mites have been reported from Maragheh County (East
Azerbaijan, Iran), of which two were discovered and described from this region. In order to
investigate the eriophyoid fauna of the tribe Anthocoptini Amrine & Stasney, 1994 (Acari:
Eriophyidae) in Maragheh County, sampling was carried out on the dominant plants in this region
during the summers 2022 and 2023. Eriophyid mites were recovered from the plant material by
means of a modified washing method nd preserved in vials of Oudemans' fluid. The collected
specimens were mounted on microscope slides . Morphological measurements and identification
were performed using an Olympus BX53 Phase-contrast microscope. During this study, five genera
and six species were identified including: Aculus fockeui (Nalepa &Trouessart, 1891) ocassionally
from Brassica rapa; Aculus comatus (Nalepa, 1892 )from Corylus avellana L.; Aculops pachyphora
Honarmand, Sadeghi & de lillo, 2020 from Sophora chrysophylla F.; Anthocoptes salicis (Nalepa,
1890) ocassionally from Amaranthus retroflexus L.; Abacarus cynodonsis (Abou-Awad & Nasr,
1983 )ocassionally from Sophora chrysophylla F.; Thamnacus sp. nov. from Plantago sp. Among
which Thamnacus sp. nov. was new to the world and was vagrant and no apparent symptom was
observed on its host plant. The genus Thamnacus Keifer, 1944 was new to Iran fauna and is the first
record of Thamnacus mites on the plants of family Plantaginaceae. The new species was compared
to all eight described species of the genus, from which it was different. In addition, Aculops
pachyphora was recorded for the first time from East Azerbaijan province.
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