Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot

Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot 1962: 5 .

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) swirskii, Ehara 1966: 23 .

Typhlodromips swirskii, Moraes et al. 1986: 149; 2004: 227.

Amblyseius swirskii, Chant & McMurtry 2004a: 201; 2007: 81.

Amblyseius capsicum (Basha, Yousef, Ibrahim & Mostafa) (synonymy according to Abo-Shnaf & Moraes 2014).

Amblyseius enab El-Badry ((synonymy according to Abo-Shnaf & Moraes 2014).

Amblyseius rykei Pritchard & Baker 1962: 249 (synonymy according to Zannou & Hanna 2011).

Like the previous species, A. swirskii belongs to the same species group and the same species subgroup as A. andersoni .

The predatory mite A. swirskii is one of the most efficient Phytoseidae; it is currently released in more than 50 countries of the world. It originates from the East Mediterranean coast and has been described in 1962 from almond [ Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A.Webb.] in Bet Dagan, Israel by Athias-Henriot (1962). This species was then reported along the coast of Israel, Middle Eastern countries, Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and the America (Demite et al. 2020).

This species is able to develop not only in the Mediterranean basin but also in subtropical and tropical areas (Zannou and Hanna 2011). Since this species is not entering diapause, it can be used throughout much of the season where daytime temperatures regularly exceed 22 °C (Calvo et al. 2015). A. swirskii is commonly used to control whiteflies and thrips in greenhouse vegetables (especially cucumber, pepper and eggplant) and some ornamental crops, in Europe and North America (Calvo et al. 2015). The biology of this species and its importance for biocontrol were recently reviewed by Calvo et al. (2015) and Buitenhuis et al. (2015).

This is the first record of that species in Slovenia, probably originating from dispersion in the environment after greenhouse releases.

World distribution: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Dr Congo, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Kenya, La Réunion Island, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, USA, Yemen.

Specimens examined: 1 ♀ and 1 immature in total. Spodnje Škofije-Purissima (aasl 50 m, lat. 45°34’21”N, long. 13°46’31”E), 1 ♀ and 1immature on Capsicum annuum L. ( Solanaceae), 11/VII/2019.

Remarks: The description and measurements of the adult females collected agree with those provided by Ferragut et al. (2010) for specimens from Spain and by Kreiter et al. (2016a, b) for specimens from La Réunion and from various countries in the world.