Euseius hibisci (Chant)

Lopes, Paula C., Mcmurtry, James A. & De Moraes, Gilberto J., 2015, Definition of the concordis species group of the genus Euseius (Acari: Phytoseiidae), with a morphological reassessment of the species included, Zootaxa 4048 (2), pp. 174-190 : 183

Euseius hibisci (Chant)

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) hibisci Chant, 1959: 68 .

Amblyseius (Typhlodromalus) hibisci .— Muma, 1961: 288. Typhlodromus hibisci .— Hirschmann, 1962: 20.

Amblyseius hibisci .— Schuster & Pritchard, 1963: 228.

Amblyseius (Euseius) hibisci .— Rodriguez et al., 1981: 648. Euseius hibisci .— Moraes et al., 2004: 70; Demite et al., 2015.

This species seems to have in North America an ecological an ecological importance similar to that of E. concordis in South America, in terms of its wide distribution ( Demite et al., 2015), its abundance, and its wide range of host plants. As cited for E. concordis , there are few reports of the occurrence of E. hibisci outside the American continent and Caribbean islands, as summarised by Demite et al. (2015). These reports need to be confirmed, given the possibility of misidentifications. This species was not collected in this study, but there are several publications about the morphology of E. hibisci in the literature ( Schuster & Pritchard, 1963; McMurtry et al., 1985; Congdon & McMurtry, 1986; Aponte & McMurtry, 1997).

This species is most similar to E. tularensis , from which it is distinguished mostly by the insertion of r3 (in the unsclerotised cuticle in E. hibisci and usually in the dorsal shield in E. tularensis ) and the length of the peritreme (extending up to the level of j 3 in E. hibisci and at most to the level of z 2 in E. tularensis ).