Fauna of Prostigmatic mites (Trombidiformes: Prostigmata) associated with Quercus spp. in Bisotun natural preserved area and List of reported species from Oak in Iran

Background and Objectives Quercus spp. is the most important and most abundant tree species in west of Iran, especially the Zagros region. The Zagros Mountains have been the original habitat for various Quercus species in Iran. Important pests attack Quercus spp. trees and often cause serious damage. Mites are active arthropod species in oak forests and act as pest, decomposer and predator. Mateials and Methods The bisotunnatural preserved area in Kermanshah province is located in height of 1320 meters above sea level. To investigate the fauna of Prostigmatic mites associated with Quercus spp. in bisotunnatural preserved area, samples were taken from different parts of location in 2018 -2019 from the soil and aerial parts of the Quercus spp. forest trees. Specimens were transferred to the laboratory, separated using berlese funnel, clarified in lactic acid and mounted in Hoyer’s liquid. Results In this study in total 12 species and 16 genera belonging to 12 families were identified. The most abundant species was Molothrognathus mehrnejadi (Liang and Zhang, 1997), from Caligonellidae. Identified species are as follows: Anystidae: Anystis baccarum Linnaeus, 1758; Bdellidae: Cyta coerulipes (Duges, 1834); Cunaxidae: Pulaeus glebulentus Den Heyer, 1980; Tydeidae: Lorryia woolleyi (Baker, 1968), Tydeus caudatus (Duges, 1834) sensu Baker, 1970; Ereynetidae: Ereynetoides amplectorus Hunter, 1964; Iolinidae: Pronematus ubiquitus (McGregor, 1932), Pronematus rykei Meyer & Rodrigues, 1966; Erythraeidae: Parerythraeus sp., Abrolophus sp.; Smarididae: Smaris sp., Fessonia sp.; Raphignathidae: Raphignathus sp.; Tetranychidae: Tetranychus urticae Koch, 1836; Tetranychus turkestani (Ugarov and Nikolski), 1937, Eotetranychus frosti (McGregor, 1952); Trombididae:Allothrombium sp.; Cheyletidae: Acaropsellina sollers Kuzin, 1940. Discussion In this study, the collected species Anystis baccarum Linnaeus, 1758, was previously reported by Yazdanpanah and Ostovan (2014) in the oak forests of the Fars Province. The collected species Cyta coerulipes, Smaris sp. and Fessonia sp. were previously reported by Farahmandi (2015) from the oak forests of Yasuj. In addition, Tetranychus urticae, collected in this study, was previously reported by Niyazi (2017) on oak trees in Ilam province and Amini et al. (2016) from oak in Marivan city. In this study nine species and four genera were collected and reported, which have not been reported previously from oak which include:   Pulaeus glebulentus Den Heyer, 1980, Lorryia woolleyi (Baker, 1968), Tydeus caudatus (Duges, 1834), Ereynetoides amplectorus Hunter, 1964, Pronematus ubiquitus (McGregor, 1932, Pronematus rykei Meyer & Rodrigues, 1966, Tetranychus turkestani (Ugarov and Nikolski), 1937, Eotetranychus frosti (McGregor, 1952), Acaropsellina sollers  Kuzin, 194,Parerythraeus sp, Abrolophus sp, Raphignatus sp. and Allothrombium sp. A Checklist of reported prostigmatic mites from oak forests of Iran is provided as well. This list included 74 species belonging to 10 genera and 17 families.