Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes, 1948

Tixier, Marie-Stephane, Allam, Latifa, Douin, Martial & Kreiter, Serge, 2016, Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) of Morocco: new records, descriptions of five new species, re-descriptions of two species, and key for identification, Zootaxa 4067 (5), pp. 501-551 : 512

Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes, 1948

Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes, 1948: 142 ; 1976: 343.

Typhlodromus barkeri .—Nesbitt, 1951: 35; Chant, 1959: 61. Amblyseius barkeri .—Athias-Henriot, 1961: 440.

Amblyseius mckenziei .—Schuster & Pritchard, 1963: 268.

Neoseiulus barkeri .—Moraes et al., 2004: 104; Chant & McMurtry, 2007: 22.

This species was originally described from England is distributed world-wide. Many publications deal with its biology. It is a well-known predator of T. urticae and also of thrips, and is released in greenhouses (strawberry, cucumber, eggplant) to control them. Kreiter et al. (2007) cited this species from the Moroccan fauna referring to the specimens reported here.

Specimens examined: 2003, Road to Souk El Arba on Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae) (1 female), Larache on Plantago maritima (Plantaginaceae) (8 females, 3 males).

Previous records: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Burundi, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Chile (Ragusa & Vargas, 2002), China, Cyprus, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Hawai, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco (Kreiter et al., 2007), Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Reunion Island, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tahiti, Thailand, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, West Bank, Yemen.