Phytoseius amba Pritchard & Baker

Phytoseius (Pennaseius) amba Pritchard & Baker 1962: 224; Blommers, 1976: 85;

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) amba, Denmark, 1966: 49;

Typhlodromus (Pizytoseius) amba, Van der Merwe, 1968: 101;

Phytoseius amba, Swirski & Ragusa, 1978: 408;

Pennaseius amba, Matthysse & Denmark, 1981: 352;

Phytoseius amba, Moraes et al., 1986: 210; 2004: 232; Chant & McMurtry, 2007: 129.

Species of the genus Phytoseius are supposed to belong to the Type III species (McMurtry and Croft 1997; McMurtry et al. 2013), i.e. a polyphagous generalist predator. However, the biology of Phytoseius amba remains totally unknown.

Specimens examined — Mdé, INRAPE (long. 11°41′S, lat. 43°14′E, alt. 50 m), 1 ♀ on Annona muricata L. ( Annonaceae), 2-02-2017.

Previous Records — Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Kenya, Madagascar Island, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Reunion Island, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Remarks (Table 6) — The setae lengths seem very variable in this species following data of the literature. Measurements of the single adult female (Table 6) agree well with measurements of the literature, especially with those of Ueckermann et al. (2007) obtained with a great number of specimens (29) from various countries in Africa, with the exception of longer j3 and z3, shorter st5-st5, ventrianal shield length and width at the level of anus and macrosetae of the basitarsus and telotarsus.