The morphological ontogeny of Amerobelba decedens Berlese, 1908 is described and illustrated. In the adult of this species, the bothridial seta is setiform, unilaterally ciliate, notogastral setae are short and barbed, and sexual dimorphism is present on tarsus IV. Most prodorsal setae of juveniles are short and smooth, except for medium-sized ro, barbed in the nymphs. The bothridial seta is long, setiform and barbed in distal part. The gastronotal setae are of medium size and barbed, except for smooth c₁ and c₂ in all juveniles, and smooth of d-series and short h₂ in the larva. Setae c₁ and c₂ are inserted on large macrosclerite, and other gastronotal setae are inserted on individual microsclerites, except for h₂ in the larva. The anal and anogenital regions are reticulate, and adanal setae are inserted on individual microsclerites. The nymphs are quadrideficient and eupheredermous, i.e. they lose setae of d-series and carry the exuvial scalps of previous instars. In this species, seta d accompanies solenidion σ on genu III and φ on tibia III and IV, both in the juveniles and adults. It is a xero-thermophilous species, with one generation per year.

Zerconid mites collected from East and West Azerbaijan provinces of Iran were evaluated from 2013–2017. Eleven Zercon and one Prozercon species were found based on the collected materials. Among them, Zercon ahadiyati sp. nov., Z. azerbaijanensis sp. nov. and Z. tabrizensis sp. nov. were distinguished as new species and described. Besides them, three species, including Z. agnostus, Z. andrei and Z. apladellus were recorded for the first time from the country. Also, an updated key and distribution map to the Iranian Zercon mites, including the new species, were given.

A new blattisociid mite, Cheiroseius arboricola sp. nov. was described based on females found in tree crevices of old oak (Quercus sp.) heavily soaked with xylem sap in southwestern Slovakia. The new species differs from most other known relatives mainly by the absence of a well-developed poststigmatic projection of the peritreme, the presence of only one pair of preanal setae (JV2) on the relatively small ventrianal shield, and the specific organization of some gnathosomal structures. A dichotomous identification key is presented for the females of thirteen species of Cheiroseius occurring in Slovakia, including the firstly reported species Cheiroseius furcatus Karg and Cheiroseius laelaptoides (Berlese).

A new feather mite Pelargolichus orientalis sp. nov. is described from the Oriental White Stork, Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe, 1873, one of the world's most endangered bird species. This mite species was collected from feathers of the Oriental White Storks bred in the Tama Zoological Park in Japan. The native population of the Oriental White Stork and feather mites associated with this bird had been extinct in Japan since 1986. Wild individuals of this bird species were transported from the Eurasian Continent to Japanese breeding facilities, and in the 2000s, a small wild population was restored. The new mite species is presently distributed in natural fields in Japan along with its introduced host population. This study presents the first record of the feather mite genus Pelargolichus in Japan.

The assessment of the long-term negative effects of acaricides on the target and non-target mites can help determine the toxicity and side effects of acaricides. The sublethal concentrations can be very precise and affect populations at concentrations lower than the conventional concentration and may supplement our knowledge about its sublethal effects on the physiology and behavior of insects/mites. Furthermore, we exposed the adults' biocontrol agents mite, Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot and Neoseuilus californicus McGregor, to the LC₁₀ and LC₃₀ concentrations of the Cyflumetofen and then assayed the effects of these concentrations on the growth and development of the next generations under laboratory conditions. Analyzed data showed that sublethal concentrations of cyflumetofen significantly affected both species' biological parameters, including the total lifetime, fecundity, and longevity of the treated biocontrol agents compared with the control treatment. Due to our results, when P. persimilis and N. californicus adults were exposed to LC₃₀ concentration of cyflumetofen, the length of the oviposition period of the treated P.persimilis and N. californicus were 20.34 and 19.66 days, respectively. At the same time, these values for the control-treated P. persimilis and N. californicus were 22.51 and 22.21, respectively. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) in control were 0.203 and 0.238, while those treated with LC₁₀ and LC₃₀ of cyflumetofen were estimated to be 0.238 and 0.214 for P. persimilis and 0.203 and 0.223 days^–1, for N. californicus, respectively. Therefore, using sublethal concentrations of cyflumetofen is emphasized for designing integrated pest management programs and makes it possible to use biocontrol agents to control the spider mite; thus, it would benefit the farmers and consumers in the long run.

Tetranychus neocaledonicus colonizes both cultivated and spontaneous plants. Species such as Phaseolus lunatus, Vigna unguiculata, Abelmoschus esculentus, and Glycine max are listed as hosts to T. neocaledonicus. However, very little is known about the bioecological aspects of this host-T. neocaledonicus interaction. The present study aims to determine the biological aspects (development and survival of immature individuals, reproduction, and fertility life table parameters) of T. neocaledonicus in P. lunatus, V. unguiculata, A. esculentus, and G. max. Individuals of T. neocaledonicus multiplied in laboratory were used on plants of P. lunatus to establish the experiments. To evaluate biological and reproductive parameters, three daily assessments were performed during the immature stages and one assessment during the adult stage. The mean developmental time from egg to adult was recorded. The highest mean was observed in V. unguiculata (13.57 days). Tetranychus neocaledonicus showed the highest fecundity in V. unguiculata, G. max and P. lunatus: 93.75, 93.38, and 79.10 eggs/female and longevity of 43.78, 33.42, and 47.26 days, respectively. Survival rate was above 50% until the 50^th day in P. lunatus, 65^th day in G. max and V. unguiculata, and 40^th day in A. esculentus. The hosts G. max and V. unguiculata provided the highest net reproduction rates (R₀) for T. neocaledonicus. The intrinsic rate of increase r_m was lower when mites parasitized V. unguiculata and A. esculentus. This also happened for the finite rate of increase (λ). Host plants affect the performance and the biological, population, and reproductive parameters of T. neocaledonicus. Glycine max is the most favorable host for the development and reproduction of T. neocaledonicus.

Two new species of genus Cunaxa, namely, C. papilla Chen & Jin sp. nov. and C. striata Chen & Jin sp. nov. are described and illustrated. C. papilla Chen & Jin sp. nov. was collected in Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Shaoguan City, Guangdong province, China. It's similar to C. magoebaensis Den Heyer, 1979, but differs from it by the long finger-like apophysis on the palp telofemur, propodosomal shield with fine papillae and c₁, c₂, d₁, e₁, f₁ and h₁ situated on small platelets. C. striata Chen & Jin sp. nov. was collected in Qingchuan County, Sichuan province and Zhaoqing City, Guangdong province, China. It's similar to C. yaylensis Sergeyenko, 2009, but differs from it by the propodosomal shield with broken striae, c₁ longer than or equal to f₁ and h₁ in length, f₁ extending beyond the base of h₁ and two pairs of hysterogastral setae (hgs₁–hgs₂). A key to adult females of Cunaxa species of the China is provided.

Three new species of oribatid mites—Epilohmannia (Neoepilohmannia) jacoti Liu & Chen sp. nov. (Epilohmanniidae), Masthermannia varisetiger Liu & Chen sp. nov. (Nanhermanniidae) and Oribatula wangae Liu & Chen sp. nov. (Oribatulidae)—are described and illustrated, based on materials collected from an apple orchard in Beijing, China.

This study is based on oribatid mite material collected from Čampari cave on Cres Island, Croatia; 28 species/ subspecies from 21 genera and 16 families are registered; of these, 12 species/subspecies are recorded in the Croatian fauna for the first time. One new species, Ceratoppia cavernalis sp. nov. is described, and an identification key to the known species of Ceratoppia from the Palaearctic region is provided.

Neonidulus falsicornus (Zhang & Martin) is redescribed based on six females, three males, two deutonymphs, two protonymphs and four larvae from New Zealand. We also discussed its ontogenetic development, especially those of leg chaetotaxy.

The predatory mite, Neoseiulus barkeri, is more tolerant to the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana, than small sap-feeding pests. Infection of insects by B. bassiana can induce insect innate immune response, and the spätzle protein (Spz), an important ligand of the insect Toll pathway, has been demonstrated to play an important role in insect innate immune defense system. Here, we investigated the infection process of B. bassiana on N. barkeri using scanning electron microscopy, and identified a Spz protein. The result showed that NbSpz-1 was expressed in all developmental stages of N. barkeri and its expression was up-regulated by B. bassiana infection. After knocking down the expression of NbSpz-1 by dsRNA, the tolerance of N. barkeri to B. bassiana was weakened, and the survival rate was reduced. Our results verified the potential role of the Spz protein in N. barkeri immune response against B. bassiana. This study enhanced our understanding on innate immune system of phytoseiid mite.

For the first time deutonymphs and adults (females and males) of species belonging to Whartonia, a genus with post-larval stages commonly found in caves and larvae as ectoparasites of bats, are described. Two species from new localities in states of Pará (Eastern Amazon) and Minas Gerais (southeastern Brazil) are reported. Postlarval cave dwelling mites could be unambiguously associated with W. (W). pachywhartoni and W. (W.) nudosetosa larvae using mitochondrial COI and nuclear ribosomal 28S sequence data, despite apparent oversplitting by species delimitation methods. They are distinguished from closely related Albeckia senase, a species with described deutonymphs, by having eyes and by the shape of idiosomal setae. They are very similar to each other, being distinguished mainly by the distribution of special setae on legs, and shape of idiosomal setae. Detailed redescriptions of the two larvae are presented based on individuals found on bats belonging to nine species, with six new host species association: Anoura caudifer, Diphylla ecaudata, Mimon bennettii, Platyrrhinus lineatus, Sturnira lilium (Phyllostomidae) and Peropteryx trinitatis (Emballonuridae).

The effectiveness of predators in suppressing prey populations is known to be influenced by the predator-prey release ratio. The efficacy of Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) against Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergand) in the presence or absence of Tetranychus urticae Koch and Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot on rose plants was evaluated in the present study. The decrease of F. occidentalis populations was compared at the six predator:prey ratios of 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, and 1:100 in the laboratory, and at the three release rates of 20, 40, and 100 predators per m² in microcosm conditions. The plants without predators were considered as controls. All treatments with the release of N. cucumeris resulted in a significant decrease in F. occidentalis larval population compared to the control. The most suppression (84.5%) of F. occidentalis larvae was observed in the release rate of 100 adults of N. cucumeris per m² in 30 days after the release of the predator. Predator ratios of 1:2 and 1:5 of N. cucumeris: F. occidentalis resulted in a 94.6 and 93.4% decrease in F. occidentalis larvae after 24 hours, respectively. The presence of T. urticae (as a competitor herbivore) and P. persimilis had no effect on the efficiency of N. cucumeris in the suppression of F. occidentalis. The dense webs of T. urticae decreased the efficiency of N. cucumeris at predator:prey ratios of 1:5 and 1:10 more than1:2. This study showed that the release of 100 adults of N. cucumeris per m² would be sufficient to control F. occidentalis larvae on rose plants. Moreover, we demonstrated that higher release rates of N.cucumeris are needed when T. urticae's dense webs are present.

Mites of the family Parasitidae Oudemans, 1901 (Acari, Mesostigmata) are widely distributed in soil and litter; some species harbor humus. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Cycetogamasus diviortus, representing a typical arthropod circular genome, with 14,450 bp in length, and encoding 37 genes. The gene order is in line with the reported mitochondrial genomes of other parasitid mite species. Except ND1 and ND5 start with TTG, other genes start with ATN. TAG is the stop codon of COX2, ND3 and ND4. COX3, CYTB and ND1 have special stop codons, which are incomplete stop codons T-, T- and A-, respectively. Other genes end in TAA. All tRNA genes show the typical cloverleaf secondary structures, except for the trnS1 (AGN), which lacks the DHU arm and is replaced by a simple loop. The whole mitochondrial genome of C. diviortus showed a heavy AT nucleotide bias (70.71%), a positive AT Skew (0.009), and a negative GC Skew (-0.267). Phylogenetic analyses were performed using Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methods based on the dataset of mitochondrial nucleotide sequences of 22 mite species. The results showed that Parasitidae and Ologamasidae were more closely related to each other than other Mesostigmata groups.

The ability of an organism to defend itself and protect its offspring is closely related to the evolutionary success of the organism. In this study, we examined the responses of red palm mite, Raoiella indica Hirst, to predation risk using cues from the predator Amblyseius largoensis (Muma). Females of A. largoensis were used for the production of cues for 4 h in two types of bioassays, a choice and no-choice tests. The oviposition rate of R. indica was evaluated until to 96 h. In addition, a walking behavior test was conducted (distance/time walked and resting time). For both tests, a control treatment without cues was done. In the no-choice bioassay, the oviposition rate of R. indica decreased by 55% when the cues were present. In the choice bioassay, the oviposition rate was similar to the control treatment, however most of the eggs were deposited in the site without cues. The walking behavior of R. indica was not affected by the presence of predator cues in no-choice bioassay. In choice bioassay, R. indica stayed longer in sites without cues. A. largoensis cues seem to be strong signs of predation risk affecting R. indica oviposition when there is no-choice, even after 96 h. R. indica shows that it is able to identify the cues of A. largoensis. We clearly evidenced the anti-predation behavior of R. indica, showing the trade-off between predation risk and reproduction on A. largoensis cues.