Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot, 1957

ZahidiK, Abdelaziz, Akchour, Abdellah, K, Serge Kreiter, TixierK, Marie-Stéphane, MsandaK, Fouad & MousadikK, Abdelhamid El, 2023, Phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Central West Morocco: new records and key to females of all recorded Moroccan species, Acarologia 63 (3), pp. 691-724 : 698

Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot

Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot 1957a: 347 .

Typhlodromus persimilis, Hirschmann 1962: 75 .

Phytoseiulus (Phytoseiulus) persimilis, Wainstein 1962: 17 .

Phytoseiulus persimilis, Chant 1959: 109 ; Moraes et al. 1986: 109, 2004a: 169 ; Chant & McMurtry 2006: 20, 2007: 53.

Phytoseiulus riegeli Dosse, 1958: 48 (Synonymy according to Kennett & Caltagirone 1968). Phytoseiulus tardi Lombardini, 1959: 166 (Synonymy according to Kennett & Caltagirone 1968).

World distribution — Algeria, Australia, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lybia, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Reunion Island, Rodrigues Island ( Mauritius), Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, USA, and Venezuela.

Previous records from Morocco — The presence of this species has been reported on wild plants and crops in various regions of Morocco by McMurtry and Bounfour (1989) and Tixier et al. (2003). It was observed on Ricinus communis L. ( Euphorbiaceae ), Stachys ocymastum (L.) Briq. ( Lamiaceae ), Vicia benghalensis L. ( Fabaceae ), Solananum sodomeum L. ( Solanaceae ), and Malva spp. ( Malvaceae ).

Specimens examined — 2 ♀♀ on citrus leaves in June 2017 ; 4 ♀♀ + 2 ♂♂ on Malva parviflora L. ( Malvaceae ); 3 ♀♀ on Convolvulus althaeoides L. ( Convolvulaceae ) at Stah

Al Madina. 4 ♀♀ on the same previous substrate at Saouda in June 2017 ; 4 ♀♀ and 1 ♂ at Taoufiqui 1 domain in the same date. 4 ♀♀ at Chbaika orchards on the same previous substrate in June and September 2018.

Remarks — Description and measurements of the adult females agree with those provided by Ferragut et al. (2010) for specimens from Spain and by Kreiter et al. (2018, 2020b) for specimens from Mauritius, La Réunion and various regions in the world. This species was mainly known from Mediterranean climates around the world ( Takahashi and Chant 1993 ; Kreiter et al. 2010). It is one of the best-known phytoseiid species as specialist predator, since its use to control T. urticae in greenhouses ( McMurtry and Croft 1997 ; Escudero and Ferragut 2004 ; McMurtry et al. 2013).