Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003
*E mail: kowsikaentomology@gmail.com
Online published on 20 July, 2016.
Spider mites particularly of the genus Oligonychus are well known as grass feeders. The rice leaf mite, Oligonychus oryzae Hirst is the predominant species in India known to infest rice. Oligonychus grypus Baker and Pritchard (1960) is now documented as a new record from the Indian subcontinent on rice and it is redescribed here. O. grypus is among the species complex of the grass feeding tetranychids. Its aedeagus lacks a distinct knob, projects dorsally, curves back over the shaft anteriorly and back, then posteriorly, posterior projection long, strong and gradually tapers distally.
Rice, leaf mite, Oligonychus grypus, redescription, aedeagus, shaft