Phytoseius amba Pritchard & Baker, 1962

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 : 171-174

Phytoseius amba Pritchard & Baker

Phytoseius (Pennaseius) amba Pritchard & Baker 1962: 224 ; Blommers 1976: 85.

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) amba , Denmark 1966: 46.

Typhlodromus (Phytoseius) amba, van der Merwe 1968: 101 .

Pennaseius amba, Matthysse & Denmark 1981: 352 .

Phytoseius amba, Swirski & Ragusa 1978: 408 ; Moraes et al. 1986: 210, 2004a: 232; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 129; El-Banhawy & Knapp 2011: 47.

This species belongs to the plumifer species group as setae J2 and R1 are present ( Chant and McMurtry 1994). It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar ( Demite et al. 2019), in La Réunion ( Quilici et al., 2000; Demite et al. 2019) and recently from one island of the Comoros Archipelago, Grande Comore ( Kreiter et al. 2018b).

The biology of this species remains totally unknown.

If all details of collections were provided in the previous paper concerning La Réunion ( Quilici et al. 2000), measurements of specimens collected and identified were not published. Measurements of specimens collected during this study are provided in table 30.

Specimens examined: 2 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ + 3 im. in total, 2 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ measured. Piton de la Fournaise – Pas de Bellecombe (aasl 2350 m, Long 55°41’20” E, Lat 21°13’20” S), 1 ♀ + 1 ♂ + 3 im. on Psiadia anchusifolia , 29/12/2016; Sainte-Rose – Forêt Mourouvin (aasl 871m, Long 55°46’12” E, Lat 21°10’48” S), 1 ♀ on Boehmeria penduliflora Wedd. ex D.G. Long , 21/1/2017.

Remarks: measurements of characters of the two females of P. amba from La Réunion ( Table 30 ) compared to those of specimens from neighbouring countries show a slight variation of dimensions depending of the geographical origin. Measurements of characters of the two collected females are close from those of specimens from South Africa (Moraes et al. 1989), especially setae j1, J2, z3, Z5, S6, r3, JV5 and spermathecal width. Setae j3 and z3 are smaller and macrosetae of leg IV are longer in specimens from La Réunion compared to specimens from Comoros Archipelago but numbers of specimens (2 and 1, respectively) are very low in both cases.

For male specimens, measurements ( Table 30 ) concern only one individual from La Réunion Island and one from South Africa. Values obtained for the male of La Réunion Island are slightly lower, except for some setae and for macrosetae of the leg IV, especially macrosetae of telotarsi of legs IV that are longer in the specimen of La Réunion Island.