Phytoseius intermedius Evans & Macfarlane

Kreiter, Serge & Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A., 2020, Phytoseiid mites of Rodrigues Island (Acari: Mesostigmata), Acarologia 60 (2), pp. 449-468 : 461-462

Phytoseius intermedius Evans & Macfarlane

Phytoseius (Dubininellus) intermedius Evans & Macfarlane 1962: 587 ; Denmark 1966: 70; Gupta 1977: 636.

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) intermedius, Ehara 1972: 170, 1975: 27 ; Prasad 1974: 171; Blommers 1976: 82; Moraes et al. 1986: 222, 2004: 242; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 129.

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) yira Pritchard & Baker 1962: 227 (synonymy according to Denmark 1966).

This species belongs to the horridus species group as setae J2 and R1 are absent ( Chant and McMurtry 1994). It was recorded in several countries of Asia, Africa, Madagascar ( Demite et al. 2020) and was known from La Réunion ( Quilici et al. 2000; Demite et al. 2020).

The biology of this species remains totally unknown. This is the most numerous species of Phytoseius in this study.

Specimens examined: 13 ♀♀ in total. Port-Mathurin, City Center (11 m aasl, lat. 19°40 ′ 53 ″ S, long. 63°25 ′ 17 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Cordia dichotoma Forster (Boraginaceae) , 3 ♀♀ on Ziziphus mauritiana L. ( Rhamnaceae ), 8/XI/2018; Anse aux Anglais (2 m aasl, lat. 19°40 ′ 33 ″ S, long. 63°26 ′ 05 ″ E), 6 ♀♀ on C. dichotoma , 11/XI/2018; Port Sud-Est, Sea Front (2 m aasl, lat. 19°44 ′ 36 ″ S, long. 63°25 ′ 17 ″ E), 3 ♀♀ on Cordia myxa L. ( Boraginaceae ), 11/XI/2018.

Remarks: measurement values of morphological characters of specimens from Rodrigues and specimens from neighbouring countries are very close, especially for specimens from La Réunion ( Kreiter et al. 2020c).