Typhlodromalus spinosus (Meyer & Rodrigues)

Kreiter, Serge & Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A., 2020, New records of phytoseiid mites from Mauritius Island (Acari: Mesostigmata, Acarologia 60 (3), pp. 520-545 : 534

Typhlodromalus spinosus (Meyer & Rodrigues)

Amblyseius spinosus Meyer & Rodrigues 1966: 30 ; Moraes et al. 1986: 31.

Kampimodromus spinosus, Quilici et al. 2000: 100 .

Typhlodromalus spinosus, Moraes et al. 2004: 204 ; Chant & McMurtry 2005a: 199, 2007:

111.

This species belongs to the athiasae species group as setae J1 and S5 are absent. This species group contains six species ( Chant and McMurtry 2005b, Moraes et al. 2006).

Typhlodromalus spinosus was collected from Eastern, Western, but mainly Southern Africa and La Réunion ( Demite et al. 2020). The rapid multiplication of this species on the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande , was confirmed and clear evidence that T. spinosus predates on WFT under laboratory and field conditions, but not T on. urticae ( Mwangi et al. 2015) . This species seems abundant in low vegetation as it was found in high populations in a study of companion plants in citrus orchard (Le Bellec et al. unpub. data).

This species has never been record from Guadeloupe or Martinique in similar studies, but it is interesting to notice that in those islands, another Typhlodromalus was collected, T. peregrinus (Muma) ( Mailloux et al. 2010; Kreiter et al. 2013, 2018c). Typhlodromalus spinosus was recorded in low numbers from La Réunion by Quilici et al. (2000) and in high numbers by Kreiter et al. (2020c). This is the first mention of this species from Mauritius Island.

World distribution: Benin, Burundi Dr Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, La Réunion Island.

Specimens examined: 3 ♀♀ in total. Côte d’Or, Village (aasl 443 m, lat. 20°15 ′ 26 ″ S, long. 57°32 ′ 21 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Clibadium surinamense L. ( Asteraceae ), 28/X/2018; Le Val, close to the river (aasl 157 m, lat. 20°22 ′ 47 ″ S, long. 55°36 ′ 18 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Callistemon citrinus (William Curtis) Homer Collar Skeels (Myrtaceae) , 1/XI/2018; Curepipe, Bld Pasteur (aasl 510 m, lat. 20°19 ′ 21 ″ S, long. 57°31 ′ 45 ″ E), 1 ♀ on C. citrinus , 4/XI/2018.

Remarks: this species was described from Mozambique ( Meyer and Rodrigues 1966), then mentioned in the Indian Ocean from La Réunion Island ( Quilici et al. 2000; Kreiter et al. 2020c). Morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements of our specimens fit well measurements in Kreiter et al. (2020c).