A survey on bark and book lice fauna (Insecta: Psocoptera) in Mazandaran province with a new report from the Derasleh region

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Crop Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari, Iran

2 Professor, Department of General Animal Husbandry, Section Ecology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University – Stara Zagora, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

3 Ph. D. Student of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

4 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Crop Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari, Iran

5 Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Crop Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari, Iran

6 Assistant Professor, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Crop Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari, Iran

10.22108/tbj.2025.145487.1309

Abstract

The order Psocoptera (Insecta: Psocodea), commonly known as barklice and booklice, has so far received limited attention in faunistic and ecological studies in Iran. These arthropods are considered among the oldest living insects, usually living in the trunks, under the bark of trees, on worn walls, inside books, and feeding mainly on starch grains, fungi, algae, lichens, and other decaying organic matter. They play a role in the decomposition and creation of microhabitats in nature. To study the fauna of the order Psocoptera in Mazandaran Province, sampling was conducted in diverse ecosystems from 2022 to 2025. Ten species belonging to six families were identified, including a new report of the family Caeciliusidae Mockford, 2000, the genus Valenzuela (Navas, 1924), and the species V. piceus (Kolbe, 1882) for the country, as well as six new records of the species Ectopsocopsis cryptomeriae (Enderlein, 1907), Ectopsocus vachoni Badonnel, 1945, Lachesilla quercus (Kolbe, 1880), Graphopsocus cruciatus (Linnaeus, 1768), Liposcelis decolor (Pearman, 1925), and L. bostrychophila Badonnel, 1931, for Mazandaran Province. Among the collected specimens, the species Trichopsocus dalii (McLachlan, 1867) exhibited the highest abundance.

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References

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