Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard & Baker)

Kreiter, Serge, Payet, Rose-My & Azali, Hamza Abdou, 2021, Phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) of Anjouan Island (Comoros Archipelago), Acarologia 61 (1), pp. 62-83 : 66

Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard & Baker)

Amblyseius (Ptenoseius) horrifer Pritchard & Baker 1962: 295 .

Amblyseius horrifer, Meyer & Rodrigues 1966: 30 .

Amblyseius (Paraphytoseius) horrifer, van der Merwe 1968: 169 .

Proprioseius (Paraphytoseius) horrifer, Karg 1983: 302 .

Paraphytoseius horrifer, Moraes et al. 1986: 105, 2004b: 152 ; Chant & McMurtry 2003b:

220, 2007: 53.

Our specimens of Paraphytoseius should be placed the orientalis species group by the absence of setae S5 ( Chant and McMurtry 2003b). As suggested by Chant and McMurtry (2003b) and Moraes et al. (2007), we consider that P. horrifer and P. orientalis are different valid species. All our specimens have long setae s4, Z4, Z5, and no distinctly short, thick, spatulate macroseta on genu I. They all belong consequently to the former species. This species is widely distributed in Sub­Saharan Africa and Madagascar. The biology P. horrifer of remains totally unknown. It was mentioned recently for the first time from several countries: La Réunion ( Kreiter et al. 2020d), Mauritius ( Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020b), Rodrigues ( Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020a) Islands and Vietnam ( Kreiter et al. 2020c).

World distribution: Benin, DR Congo, Ghana, India, Kenya, La Réunion Island, Madagascar Island, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda.

Specimens examined: 36 specimens (34 ♀♀ and 2 ♂♂) collected during this study. Tsembehou, inside the village (446 m aasl, 12°12 ′ 27 ″ S, 44°27 ′ 54 ″ E), 34 ♀♀ and 2 ♂♂ on Clerodendrum speciosissimum Van Geert ex Morren (Lamiaceae) , 29/IX/2018.

Remarks: morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements fit well with those mentioned by Kreiter et al. (2020c, d). This species described from Africa ( Pritchard & Baker 1962) was first mention in the Indian Ocean from La Réunion Island ( Kreiter et al. 2020d) but seems to be present in Rodrigues, Mauritius and Mayotte ( Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020a, b; Kreiter et al. 2020a) and actually in at least one island of Comoros Archipelago. This is the most abundant species in Anjouan Island but all specimens were collected only in one sample site.