Traditional and geometric morphometrics supporting the differentiation of two new Retracrus (Phytoptidae) species associated with heliconias Denise Navia 1 • Cecı ´lia B. S. Ferreira 2 • Aleuny C. Reis 2 • Manoel G. C. Gondim Jr. 2 Received: 2 January 2015 / Accepted: 26 May 2015 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Abstract Cryptic diversity has been confirmed for several phytophagous mites in the Eriophyoidea superfamily previously considered as presenting low host specificity. Among generalist eriophyoids is the phytoptid Retracrus johnstoni Keifer, which has been reported in 19 palm species belonging to 11 genera, causing severe damage on some of them. Surprisingly this species was recently reported on another monocot family, Heliconiaceae, infesting Heliconia plants in Costa Rica and Brazil, being the only in the tribe Mackiellini to not be associated with palm trees. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of cryptic species in R. johnstoni and to clarify the taxonomic status of populations associated with heliconias in the Americas. With this purpose traditional and geometric morphometric analyses were conducted as well as a detailed morphological study. Measurable trait data were analysed via univariate and multivariate analyses. Shapes of specimens from different populations were compared via geometric morphometric landmark methods. Morphome- tric analysis supported occurrence of at least two cryptic species previously identified as R. johsntoni and suggested occurrence of cryptic species among populations associated with different palm trees. Taxonomic descriptions of two new taxa associated with heliconias, namely Retracrus costaricensis n. sp. Ferreira and Navia and Retracrus heliconiae n. sp. Ferreira and Navia are presented. Morphometric traits that can be useful in the taxonomic identification are noted and their value is discussed. Results of the traditional morphometry and geometric methods were compared and the advantages of their joint use for Erio- phyoidea systematics are discussed. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10493-015-9934-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Denise Navia denise.navia@embrapa.br 1 Recursos Gene ´ticos e Biotecnologia, Embrapa, Parque Estac ¸ao Biolo ´ gica, Final Av. W5 Norte, Asa Norte, 70, Brası ´lia, Distrito Federal 770-900, Brazil 2 Departamento de Agronomia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Bairro dois Irma ˜os, Recife, Pernambuco CEP 52171-900, Brazil 123 Exp Appl Acarol DOI 10.1007/s10493-015-9934-z