Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri Scheuten, 1973

Kreiter, Serge, Douin, Martial & Tixier, Marie Stephane, 2021, New records of phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Madeira Island, Acarologia 61 (2), pp. 217-240 : 232

Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri Scheuten

Typhlodromus pyri Scheuten 1857: 104 , Moraes et al. 1986: 246.

Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri, Chant 1959: 64 .

Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri, Moraes et al. 2004: 367 , Chant & McMurtry 2007: 157.

This species is cosmopolitan but it is one of the most common and dominant species in vineyards and orchards in the western part of Europe. It has been introduced in various countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA for biological control purposes. It has been reported on a wide range of plants, essentially on cultivated and uncultivated shrubs and trees This species is an efficient predator of red and yellow spider mites, and eriophyid mites mainly in orchards and vineyards as well as the grape thrips Drepanothrips reuteri (Uzel) in

France ( Serrano et al. 2004).

World distribution: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Chile,

Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madeira Island, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, New

Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia,

Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, USA.

Specimens examined: 13 specimens (11 ♀♀, 2 imm.) collected during this study.

Encumeada (709 m aasl, 32°44 ′ 36 ″ N, 17°1 ′ 31 ″ W), 1 ♀ on an endemic plant of Madeira

Island, the so­called Star of Madeira, Echium candicans L. f. ( Boraginaceae ), 20/V/2019 ; Pico das Urzes, in the bush (1172 m aasl, 32°44 ′ 3 ″ N, 17°3 ′ 43 ″ W), 2 ♀♀ on Rubus grandifolius

Lowe ( Rosaceae ), 19/V/2019 ; São Paulo, Sacrada familia (705 m aasl, 32°40 ′ 11 ″ N, 17°3 ′ 45 ″

W), 8 ♀♀ and 1 imm. Woodwardia radicans (L.) Smith ( Blechnaceae ), 21/V/2019 ; Quinta da Serra (802 m aasl, 32°40 ′ 5 ″ N, 17°2 ′ 55 ″ W), 1 imm. on Ocotea foetens (Aiton) Baillon

(Lauraceae), 21/V/2019.

Remarks: The measurements of the adult females collected agree with those provided by

Ferragut et al. (2010) for specimens from Spain and by Tixier et al. (2019) for specimens from

France. This species is the fourth most abundant (11%) after E. stipulatus (22%), A. herbicolus

(21%) and T. (T.) exhilaratus (17%) but it is slightly more frequent than the later species [14 %

of the total samples against only 10% for T. (T.) exhilaratus ].