Euseius ovaloides (Blommers)

Kreiter, Serge & Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A., 2020, New records of phytoseiid mites from Mauritius Island (Acari: Mesostigmata, Acarologia 60 (3), pp. 520-545 : 535-536

Euseius ovaloides (Blommers)

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) ovaloides Blommers 1974: 147 .

Euseius ovaloides Moraes et al. 1986: 51, 2004: 78 ; Chant & McMurtry 2005a: 215, 2007:

121.

This species was described by Blommers (1974) from specimens collected on Citrus hystrix and Persea americana in Madagascar. Like all Euseius species, it belongs to the type IV (pollinophagous generalist predators) of McMurtry and Croft (1997) and McMurtry et al. (2013). The species had been occasionally recorded from Madagascar (Blommers 1974), Papua-New Guinea ( Schicha and Gutierrez 1985), Seychelles ( Schicha 1987), La Réunion Island, ( Quilici et al. 1997, 2000), Guadeloupe, Martinique and Marie-Galante ( Moraes et al. 2000; Kreiter et al. 2006) on various plants, though its biology remains unknown. It is suspected to be a poor predator of tetranychid mites ( Gutierrez and Etienne 1986), but can be considered as a potentially good predator of thrips and of whiteflies. This is one of the more common species on La Réunion Island. This is the first mention of E. ovaloides from Mauritius.

World distribution: Guadeloupe, Madagascar Island, Marie-Galante, Martinique, Papua New Guinea, La Réunion Island, Seychelles Archipelago.

Specimens examined: 83 ♀♀, 7 ♂♂ and 1 im. in total. Curepipe, Anderson street (aasl 560 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 11 ″ S, long. 57°31 ′ 52 ″ E), 21 ♀♀ on Codiaeum variegatum (L.) Jussieu (Euphorbiacae), 27/X/2018; Curepipe, Botanical Garden (aasl 540 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 28 ″ S, long. 57°30 ′ 50 ″ E), 1 ♀ + 1 ♂ on Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl ( Lauraceae ), and on Vernicia montana Loureiro (Euphorbiaceae) , 29/X/2018; Curepipe, Trou aux cerfs (aasl 593 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 04 ″ S, long. 57°30 ′ 47 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Solanum mauritianum Scopoli (Rosaceae) , 29/X/2018; Baie du Cap (aasl 55 m, lat. 20°29 ′ 11 ″ S, long. 57°22 ′ 43 ″ E), 8 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ on Terminalia cattapa L. ( Combretaceae ), 31/X/2018; Mahébourg, Pointe des Régates (aasl 2 m, lat. 20°24 ′ 15 ″ S, long. 57°42 ′ 35 ″ E), 1 ♀ on T. cattapa , 31/X/2018; Riambel, Sea Front (aasl 11m, lat. 20°31 ′ 15 ″ S, long. 57°30 ′ 45 ″ E), 5 ♀♀ on Carica papaya L. ( Caricaceae ), 2 ♀♀ on Musa paradisiaca L. ( Musaceae ) and 2 ♀♀ on Pithecellobium dulce (Roxburgh) Bentham (Mimosaceae) , 31/X/2018; Mare d’Albert (aasl 160 m, lat. 20°25 ′ 13 ″ S, long. 57°38 ′ 16 ″ E), 7 ♀♀ on C. papaya and 3 ♀♀ on Litchi sinensis Sonnerat (Sapindaceae) , 1/XI/2018; Anse aux petits sables (aasl 2 m, lat. 20°24 ′ 15 ″ S, long. 57°42 ′ 35 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ on Ricinus communis L. ( Euphorbiaceae ), 1/XI/2018; Belle Rive (aasl 158 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 24 ″ S, long. 57°42 ′ 08 ″ E), 4 ♀♀ on Acalypha hispida Burman (Euphorbiaceae) , 1/XI/2018; Pamplemousse, Botanical Garden (aasl 41 m, lat. 20°06 ′ 24 ″ S, long. 57°34 ′ 49 ″ E), 1 ♀ + 1 ♂ on Terminalia arjuna (Roxburgh) Wight et Arnott (Combretaceae) , 1 ♂ on Acacia glauca (L.) Moench ( Fabaceae ) and 2 ♀♀ on Saraca indica (Roxburgh) Willdenow (Fabaceae) , 3/XI/2018; Curepipe, Bld Pasteur (aasl 510 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 21 ″ S, long. 57°31 ′ 45 ″ E), 4 ♀♀ on Sphaeropteris cooperi (Hooker ex F. Mueller) R.M. Tryon (Cyatheaceae) , 1 ♀ on Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) , 7 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ on Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. ( Malvaceae ), 3 ♀♀ on Ageratum conyzoides L. ( Asteraceae ), 1 ♀ on Duranta erecta L. ( Verbenaceae ) and 5 ♀♀ on Terminalia mantaly Perrier (Combretaceae) , 4/XI/2018; Réduit, Sugar reaearch institute (aasl 273 m, lat. 20°14 ′ 48 ″ S, long. 57°21 ′ 25 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ + 2 ♂♂ + 1 im. on Acalypha wilkesiana Müller Argoviensis (Euphorbiaceae) , 6/XI/2018.

Remarks: this species was recently reported from Vietnam ( Kreiter et al. 2020b). Morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements of our specimens fit well measurements in Kreiter et al. (2020b). Euseius ovaloides is the second most collected species in our study after A. herbicolus and probably one of the three more common species with A. herbicolus and A. passiflorae .