Abstract. Accurate species delimitation is essential for the study of biodiversity, but morphological approaches often provide a limited ability to connect different life stages, sexes or other phenotypic variants in eriophyoid mites because many species possess two phenotypically distinct forms: protogynes and deutogynes. In this study, we analysed the morphological variation in 26 populations of the eriophyoid mite, Epitrimerus sabinae Xue & Hong, 2005 s.l., from sites across its entire known distribution and revealed three morphotypes (LNS: large, normal palp seta d; MBS: medium, bifurcated palp seta d; SBS: small, bifurcated palp seta d) distinguished by body size and structure of dorsal pedipalp genual seta. Five lines of evidence (morphometrics, DNA-based species delimitation, phylogenetics, haplotype network, mitochondrial genome architecture) indicated that the MBS and SBS groups were very distinct from LNS (E. sabinae s.s.). In fact, the MBS and SBS morphotypes are properly placed in the genus Leipothrix with the MBS lineage representing the protogyne of L. juniperensis, sp. nov., whereas the SBS lineage is its deutogyne. By expanding the approaches used to link protogynes and deutogynes of eriophyoid mites, this study provides a way to accelerate the delineation of species boundaries in this important group of plant pests.

中文翻译：

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使用多条证据来界定四足螨的原母和后母：一个关于 Epitrimerus sabinae sl（Acari：Eriophyidae）的案例研究

摘要。准确的物种划界对于生物多样性研究至关重要，但形态学方法通常提供有限的能力来连接不同生命阶段、性别或其他拟螨的表型变异，因为许多物种具有两种表型不同的形式：原型和 deutogyne。在这项研究中，我们分析了 26 个 eriophyoid 螨类 Epitrimerus sabinae Xue & Hong, 2005 sl 的形态变异，来自其整个已知分布的地点，并揭示了三种形态型（LNS：大的、正常的触须刚毛；MBS：中等，分叉的触须刚毛；SBS：小，分叉的触须刚毛 d) 以体大小和背侧足趾膝刚毛的结构为特征。五行证据（形态计量学、基于 DNA 的物种定界、系统发育学、单倍型网络、线粒体基因组结构）表明 MBS 和 SBS 组与 LNS（E. sabinae ss）非常不同。事实上，MBS 和 SBS 形态型被正确地放置在 Leipothrix 属中，MBS 谱系代表了杜松属的原型。11 月，而 SBS 血统是它的 deutogyne。通过扩展用于连接拟螨类原虫和后母虫的方法，本研究提供了一种方法来加速划定这一重要植物害虫群中的物种边界。