Tamarisk is an invasive evergreen shrub native to arid regions of Africa and Eurasia and is considered a weed in some countries with dry climates. The complex of gall mites from tamarisks includes fourteen species from four genera of the family Eriophyidae. We reinvestigated the type species of the genus Dicruvasates, D. tamaricis from Egypt, described D. ngubani n. sp. from Tamarix usneoides from South Africa, and revised the generic concept of Dicruvasates. This genus possesses cuticular plates marking longitudinal opisthosomal ridges typical of various phyllocoptine genera, e.g., Echinacrus. We sequenced three genes of Dicruvasates and Phyllocoptes mites from Tamarix and Echinacrus from Frangula, combined our sequences with the data from GenBank, and performed single-gene phylogenetic analyses. All analyses inferred the following: (1) a transcontinental clade Tam comprising Dicruvasates + Aceria + Phyllocoptes from Tamarix; (2) Echinacrus distantly related to Dicruvasates, suggesting the homoplastic nature of the cuticular plates on the opisthosomal ridges, and (3) polyphyly of the genera Aceria and Phyllocoptes. We also investigated partially cleared specimens of Dicruvasates under CLSM and, for the first time, visualized a well-developed anal secretory apparatus (ASA) in the immatures of gall mites, which was previously shown to be a specialized system evolved in Eriophyoidea for silk production. We hypothesize that the ASA contributes to finding nymphs by conspecific males and advocate for the importance of the future molecular biology studies of gall mite silk for developing new methods for controlling mites based on the knowledge of their ecology, behavior, and silk gene genetics.

中文翻译：

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共聚焦显微镜和分子分析揭示了未成熟幼虫的肛门分泌器并从柽柳中恢复了跨大陆瘿螨 (Eriophyoidea) 分支

柽柳是一种入侵性常绿灌木，原产于非洲和欧亚大陆的干旱地区，在一些气候干燥的国家被认为是杂草。柽柳瘿螨群包括柽柳科四个属的十四种。我们重新研究了 Dicruvasates 属的模式种，来自埃及的 D. tamaricis，描述​​为 D. ngubani n。 sp。来自南非的 Tamarix usneoides，并修改了 Dicruvasates 的通用概念。该属具有表皮板，其标记了各种叶绿素属（例如，紫锥菊属）典型的纵向后体脊。我们对来自柽柳和来自 Frangula 的 Echinacrus 的 Dicruvasates 和 Phyllocoptes 螨的三个基因进行了测序，将我们的序列与 GenBank 的数据相结合，并进行了单基因系统发育分析。所有分析均得出以下结论：（1）横贯大陆的 Tam 支系，由来自柽柳的 Dicruvasates + Aceria + Phyllocoptes 组成； (2) Echinacrus 与 Dicruvasates 有远亲关系，表明后体脊上的角质板具有同质性；(3) Aceria 属和phyllocoptes 属的多系性。我们还在 CLSM 下研究了部分清除的 Dicruvasates 样本，并首次在瘿螨幼体中观察到发育良好的肛门分泌装置 (ASA)，该系统之前被证明是 Eriophyoidea 中进化的用于生产丝的专门系统。我们假设 ASA 有助于发现同种雄性若虫，并提倡未来瘿螨丝分子生物学研究的重要性，以开发基于螨虫生态、行为和丝基因遗传学知识来控制螨虫的新方法。