Tetranychidae - Tetranychinae - Tetranychini
Oligonychus Berlese, 1886. Berlese (1886): 24
Notes: Meyer (1987) made the following analysis of the genus:
Oligonychus is characterized by a single pair of para-anal setae (h2); well developed claw-like empodia situated at right angles to and about as long as proximoventral setae; duplex setae on tarsus I distal and adjacent; dorsal body setae, with few exceptions, not located on tubercles.
Wainstein (1960b) was the first to divide Oligonychus into 5 subgenera namely Oligonychus s.str., Homonychus Wainstein, Pritchardinychus Wainstein, Metatetranychoides Wainstein and Paratetranychus Zacher.
Tuttle & Baker (1968) retained 4 of Wainstein s subgenera, created 2 new ones namely Wainsteiniella and Reckiella and considered Paratetranychus a synonym of Oligonychus s.str. They based their subgenera on such characters as the dorsal striation pattern of the female opisthosoma, the length of the dorsal body setae, the number of tactile setae on tibia I and the aedeagus.
Mitrofanov (1977) went further than Tuttle & Baker (1968) and gave generic status to Metatetranychoides, Pritchardinychus and Homonychus. He also created a new genus Neonychus with Oligonychus licinus Baker & Pritchard as type-species. He took this step because it was becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate between the genera Oligonychus and Tetranychus, on the basis of the presence or absence of claw-like empodia. As additional species of Tetranychus with dorsomedial spurs resembling the empodial claw of Oligonychus are described, the distinction between the 2 genera becomes less distinct. To avoid this, Mitrofanov used the striation pattern on the opisthosoma to differentiate between genera and subgenera. However, as pointed out previously this character is not stable and can hardly be used for subgeneric divisions and much less for segregating genera.
Bolland et al. (1998) followed Meyer s analysis and didn t retained any subgenera.
In 2021, Mushtaq et al. proposed to retain 2 subgenera namely Oligonychus and Reckiella. However many species could not be included in any of them.
The genus Oligonychus comprises 212 species.
Oligonychus (Oligonychus) Berlese, 1886. Berlese (1886): 24
The genus Oligonychus (Oligonychus) comprises 76 species.
Oligonychus (Reckiella) Berlese, 1886. Tuttle & Baker (1968): 122
The genus Oligonychus (Reckiella) comprises 119 species.
Oligonychus Berlese, 1886. Berlese (1886): 24
Targioni Tozzetti (1878) Relazione interno ai lavori della Stazione di entomologia agraria di Firenze per l'anno 1876. Acaridei. Annali di Agricoltura, 1: 242-275 [description]
Berlese (1886) Acari dannosi alle piante coltivati. Padova, Italia: 31 p [description; taxononmy]
Zacher (1913) Untersuchungen über Spinnmilben. Mitteilungen aus der Kaiserlichen Biologischen Anstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, 14: 37-41 [description]
Zacher (1949) Arachnoidea, Spinnentiere. Sorauer, P. (Ed), Handbuch der Pflanzenkrankheiten, Berlin, P. Parey. 4: 88-138 [description]
Pritchard & Baker (1955) A revision of the spider mite family Tetranychidae. Memoirs Series, San Francisco, Pacific Coast Entomological Society, 2: 472 p [taxononmy]
Wainstein (1956b) Fauna of tetranychoid mites in South Kazakhstan. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 35: 384-391 [description; taxononmy]
Wainstein (1960a) Tetranychoid mites of Kazakhstan (with revision of the family). Trudy Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Zashchita Rastenii Kazakh., 5: 1-276 [description; taxononmy]
André (1965) Hirstiella Zacher , 1949 (Tetranychidae) doit être invalidé pour cause d'impropriété. Acarologia, 7(2): 294 [taxononmy]
Tuttle & Baker (1968) Spider mites of southwestern United States, a revision of the family Tetranychidae. Tucson, Usa, The University of Arizona Press: 143 p [description; taxononmy]
Mitrofanov (1977) The taxonomy of the family Tetranychidae (Acariformes, Trombidiformes). Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 56: 1797-1804 [description]
Meyer (1987) African Tetranychidae (Acari: Prostigmata) - with reference to the world genera. Entomology Memoir, Department of Agriculture, Water Supply, Republic of South Africa, 69: 1-175 [key (Africa); taxononmy]
Mitrofanov et al. (1987) Keys to the tetranychid mites (Tetranychidae, Bryobiidae) fauna of the USSR, adjacent countries. Institute of Zoology and Parasitology E.N. Pavlosky, Tajik SSR, Doma, Dushanbe: 224 pp [taxononmy]
Lo & Ho (1989a) A new species of spider mite from Taiwan (Acarina: Tetranychidae). Journal of Taiwan Museum, 42(2): 55-58 [taxononmy]
Mushtaq et al. (2021b) The genus Oligonychus Berlese (Acari, Prostigmata, Tetranychidae): taxonomic assessment and a key to subgenera, species groups, and subgroups. Zookeys, 1079: 89-127 [key (World); taxononmy]