All the recorded specimens in the dataset were identified to species. The identification of spider mites to species often requires the examination of male genitalia and specimens identified to genus were generally single females and have been discarded. Unidentified specimens have also been discarded. The dataset contains 175 species, i.e. 14 % of the species known in this family. Jean Gutierrez described 50 species (Table 1). Types of 49 are deposited in his collection.

The spatial coverage varies among geographic areas (Figure 1) most being collected in Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean or in New Caledonia, South Pacific and Papuasia. Not all specimens from these areas were mentioned in the literature (Figure 2) compiled in Spider Mites Web (Migeon and Dorkeld 2006–2013).

Figure 1. 

World map representing all the locations mentioned in the dataset. Areas of particular interest are represented with the same colour (⬤ Madagascar, ⬤ Western Indian Ocean, ⬤ Papuasia, ⬤ New Caledonia, ⬤ South Pacific). Grey spots gather all the other locations.

Figure 2. 

Number of species recorded in Jean Gutierrez collection dataset (solid bar) and in the literature (dashed bar) compiled in Spider Mites Web (http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/spmweb/) for the areas of particular interest. Colour scheme same as in Figure 1.

1963–1999.

Collection name:

Spider Mites collection of Jean Gutierrez.

Specimen preservation methods:

Specimens are preserved on microslides mounted with Hoyer medium after clearing in lactic acid and coloring with lignin pink (Gutierrez 1985). Microslides boxes are stored in the CBGP collection room maintained at 20 +/- 2 °C and 25 +/- 10% RH.

There are 5,262 microscopic slides recorded in the dataset. Each one contains a single specimen. Specimens identified at genus level only, without location data, or from laboratory breeding have been discarded, for a total of 347 specimens. All (and only) indications given on the label have been recorded. Location coordinates (Decimal degrees – DD – WGS84 geodetic system) have been assigned using several geolocation tools like GoogleMaps, GeoNames and other gazetteers, completed when necessary by textual search. Country and TDWG level 4 polygon were assigned to each location (http://www.tdwg.org/standards/109/)

Unknown collection date was set as 1^st January 1901 for 31 specimens. This convention takes advantage to be outside of the temporal range of Jean Gutierrez work, indicating the absence of temporal data. When only year was reported date was set as 1^st January of the year. When only month and year were reported, date was set as 15^th of the month.

Location precision has been assigned from 0.01° DD when the place was found corresponding to a small area (1–10 km²), 0.1° DD when place was corresponding to a bigger area (10–100 km²), 0.5° DD (100–2500 km²), to 1° DD (2500–10000 km²). For one slide it was not possible to assign coordinates (location not found). Then only country reported on the label has been published.

The Tetranychidae nomenclature is in accordance with current reference: Spider Mites Web (Migeon and Dorkeld 2006–2013) and Catalogue of Life (Roskov et al. 2014). Determinations have been performed by Jean Gutierrez himself a well-known and internationally recognized specialist (Bolland et al. 1998). In case of doubt, identification was checked and rectified before publication with present knowledge if necessary. Host plant nomenclature is in accordance to current reference (The Plant List 2013). Geographic coordinates were visually verified using the Check Coordinates tool in Diva-GIS (Hijmans et al. 2012) and manual verification (points in the sea…).