The occurrence of tomato red spider mite (Tetranychus evansi) in Serbia

Abstract: In the last twenty years tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker andPritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae), native to South America, has considerably expanded itsdistribution area and became an invasive species in Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Asia.This species is one of the major pests of tomato and several other economically importantplants, mostly from the family Solanaceae. In Serbia, T. evansi was found in 2015, 2016 and2018 at 16 sampling locations, among which 10 were located in the southern part of the country.T. evansi populations were small (usually just a few specimens were sampled), almost alwaysfound together with other spider mites, such as Tetranychus urticae Koch and Tetranychusturkestani (Ugarov and Nikolskii). Besides tomato as the main host plant, T. evansi was foundon solanaceous weeds such as Solanum nigrum (Solanaceae) and Convolvulus arvensis(Convolvulaceae), as well as on pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae), a new host plantfor tomato red spider mite.