Transeius soniae Zannou, Moraes & Oliveira

Kreiter, Serge, Payet, Rose-My, Douin, Martial, Fontaine, Olivier, Jacques, Fillâtre & Bellec, Fabrice Le, 2020, Phytoseiidae of La Réunion Island (Acari: Mesostigmata): three new species and two males described, new synonymies, and new records, Acarologia 60 (1), pp. 111-195 : 150

Transeius soniae Zannou, Moraes & Oliveira

Transeius soniae Zannou, Moraes & Oliveira in Zannou et al. 2007: 38 ; El-Banhawy & Knapp 2011: 22 .

Just like the two previous new species, T. soniae belongs to the bellottii species group. It belongs to the namurensis species subgroup as the spermatheca has the calyx swollen basally, then narrowing and flaring distally. This species subgroup contains only six species (Chant and McMurtry 2004 a, Zannou et al. 2007, Tixier et al. 2016).

This species was described and mentioned only from Kenya. Although species of Transeius are considered as type III-b (generalist predators living on glabrous leaves) ( McMurtry et al. 2013) phytoseiids based on the only studied species, Transeius montdorensis (Schicha) ( McMurtry and Croft 1997, McMurtry et al. 2013), the biology of T. soniae remains totally unknown, just like many other species of Transeius , including the two new species above described.

This is the first mention of this species in another country than Kenya and the first mention for La Réunion Island.

Specimens examined: 3 ♀♀ in total, all measured. Le Tampon – Grand Tampon (aasl 1100 m, Long 55°34’12” E, Lat 21°16’48” S), 3 ♀♀ on S. mauritianum , 18/1/2017.

Remarks: measurements of specimens of La Réunion ( Table 17 ) fit well with those already published in the literature, especially with those of the original description of Zannou et al. (2007). Some setae such as j4 and j5 are longer in La Réunion specimens than those in Kenya specimens. Setae s4, S2, and Z4 (between 14 and> to 22 %) and in a lesser extent Z1 are however shorter than those collected in Kenya ( Zannou et al. 2007; El-Banhawy and Knapp 2011).