A new species of Brevipalpus (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) from the Azores Islands, with remarks on the B. cuneatus species group

Abstract

[EN] Brevipalpus contains about 290 species, some of which are considered of economic importance. In spite of their agricultural importance, the species diversity is scarcely known in several regions around the world, notably on wild plants. In this work a new species collected on an endemic ivy of the Azores Archipelago, Hedera azorica Carriere (Araliaceae), is described based on an integrative approach using morphological traits of the adults, obtained through electron and light microscopy, and molecular characters based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted in order to produce reliable phylogenetic placement of the new species, which is tentatively classified in the B. portalis species group. Morphological similarities between the new species and B. cuneatus Canestrini and Fanzago point out to some inconsistencies in the current morphological classification of Brevipalpus species, especially in the definition of the B. cuneatus group, herein discussed.