Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans)

Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A. & De, Gilberto J., 2014, Phytoseiid mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) from Egypt, with new records, descriptions of new species, and a key to species, Zootaxa 3865 (1), pp. 1-71 : 25

Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans)

Typhlodromus cucumeris Oudemans, 1930: 69 ; Nesbitt, 1951: 23; Hirschmann, 1962: 2; Spain & Luxton, 1971: 187.

Typhlodromus thripsi MacGill 1939: 310 . (synonymy by Evans, 1952: 416; Chant, 1959: 78; Schuster & Gonzalez, 1963: 185; Schuster & Pritchard, 1963: 277; Westerboer & Bernhard, 1963: 609; Schicha, 1976: 337; Chant et al., 1978: 1346).

Typhlodromus bellinus Womersley, 1954: 177 . (synonymy by Dosse, 1957: 307; Schuster & Gonzalez, 1963: 185; Schuster & Pritchard, 1963: 277; Athias-Henriot, 1960a: 297; 1966: 207; Chant & Hansell, 1971: 721; Chant et al., 1978: 1346; not synonym, according to Schicha, 1976: 340).

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) cucumeris .— Chant, 1959: 78.

Amblyseius (Typhlodromopsis) cucumeris .— De Leon, 1959: 113.

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) cucumeris . — Wainstein, 1962b: 16; Ehara, 1966: 20; Ueckermann & Loots, 1988: 147.

Amblyseius cucumeris . — Schuster & Pritchard, 1963: 277; El-Badry, 1970: 502; Livshitz & Kuznetsov, 1972: 25; Beglyarov, 1981: 39; Nasr & Abou-Awad, 1985: 246; Zaher, 1986: 111; Papadoulis & Emmanouel, 1991: 52; Swirski et al., 1998: 105.

Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) cucumeris .— Westerboer & Bernhard, 1963: 609.

Amblyseius coprophilus Karg, 1970: 289 . (synonymy by Karg, 1971: 213; Chant & McMurtry, 2003: 21).

Neoseiulus cucumeris . — Moraes et al., 1986: 76; 2004: 115; Beard, 2001: 103; Congdon, 2002: 23; Denmark & Edland, 2002: 211; Papadoulis et al., 2009: 79; Ramadan et al., 2009: 118; Ferragut et al., 2010: 84.

Female (two specimens).

Dorsal shield strongly reticulate; 351, 346 long and 182, 164 wide, with 17 pairs of setae. Setae j 1 18, 16; j 3 23, 21; j 4 13, 12; j 5 10, 9; j 6 13, 11; J 2 16, 14; J 5 13, 11; z 2 13, 12; z 4 13, 12; z 5 10, 8; Z 1 16, 15; Z 4 26, 24; Z5 60, 57; s 4 18, 17; S 2 21, 19; S 4 21, 19; S 5 26, 25; r 3 23, 21; R 1 21, 19. Dorsal setae smooth, except Z4 and Z5, slightly serrate. Peritreme extending forward to level of j3.

Venter. Sternal shield smooth with few lateral striae, with three pairs of setae and two pairs of lyrifissures. Distances between st1–st 1 33, 30; st2–st2 60, 58; st3–st3 65, 61; st4–st4 70, 68. Genital shield weakly striate; distance between st5–st5 68, 67. Ventrianal shield subpentagonal, reticulate; 117, 107 long, 96, 88 wide at ZV2 level and 81, 75 wide at level of anus; with three pairs of pre-anal setae and a pair of pre-anal pores. Seta JV5 39, 38. Ventral setae smooth, except JV5, slightly serrate. Two pairs of metapodal plates.

Spermatheca. Calyx of spermatheca saccular, 10, 9 long; atrium distinct.

Gnathosoma. Corniculi slightly convergent distally; basal width of corniculus 4, distance between bases of corniculi 8. Movable cheliceral digit 31, 30 long, with one tooth; fixed digit 29, 28 long, with three teeth.

Legs. Macroseta sharp-tipped: Sge IV 34, 33; Sti IV 33, 32; St IV 49, 44; chaetotaxy of genu II 2, 2/0, 2/0, 1; genu III 1, 2/1, 2/0, 1.

Specimens examined. Two females from mango leaves, at the Faculty of Agriculture Farm, Cairo University, Giza governorate, June 1980 (coll. M.A. Zaher).

Previous records from Egypt. Fayoum governorate ( Romeih et al., 2010b); Giza governorate (Zaher & El- Badry, 1962; El-Badry, 1970; Zaher, 1986; Romeih et al., 2010b); unspecified governorate ( Chant, 1959).

Remarks. Neoseiulus cucumeris was originally described from the holotype female collected in France. The original description was brief, only with measurements of the idiosoma and no illustration; complementary descriptions were listed by Demite et al. (2014). Our measurements are close to those reported by Zaher (1986) for a single female, except s4 (40 according to that author).