2002 Volume 37 Issue 3 Pages 399-407
To establish diagnostic DNA markers useful for discriminating economically important Tetranychus species, especially T. kanzawai, from other species of the urticae complex, we sequenced the ribosomal ITS region, including ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2, of four Tetranychus species and analyzed recognition sites of restriction endonucleases. We established genetic criteria for discriminating T. kanzawai, T. urticae, T. pueraricola and T. ludeni using PCR-RFLP. We propose the establishment of a worldwide PCR-RFLP catalogue.