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Abstract
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The economic importance of mites of the family Iolinidae Pritchard, 1956 (Trombidiformes: Tydeoidea) is poorly-known except of iolinids living on foliage which have an important role in providing alternative food for phytoseiid mites when other prey is unavailable or in biological control of plant pathogens. They can also act as predators of tetranychoid eggs and immature stages or scavengers in leaf ecosystem. During a survey on tydeoid mites of Kermanshah province (Western Iran), Pronematus rykei Mayer & Rodrigues, 1966 was collected from different orchard leaves of 14 locations from March till October 2011–2013. This is the first record of mentioned species from Iran. This mite observed on apple, plum, hazelnut, pear, berry, cherry, apricot, fig, grape and maple leaves. Ventral body setae in P. rykei are longer than 1/3 of distance between their bases. Solenidion ω1 is one third of tarsus I length and seta d on palpal tarsus forked distally. The genus Pronematus described by Canestrini in 1886 and now contains four valid species and some other species with incomplete descriptions mostly based on legs. P. ubiquitus (McGregor, 1932) and P. sextoni Baker, 1968 are two other species of this genus collected in this survey. P. ubiquitus observed on apricot, plum, grape, apple and cotton leaves but P. sextoni collected just on plum leaves. Geographical distribution and abundance of P. rykei in Kermanshah province is much more than other two reported species of the respective genus.
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