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, 1960 a: 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, 1962 b: 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; Z 5 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 Z 4 and Z 5, slightly serrate. Peritreme extending forward to level of j 3.

Venter. Sternal shield smooth with few lateral striae, with three pairs of setae and two pairs of lyrifissures. Distances between st 1 –st 1 33, 30; st 2 –st 2 60, 58; st 3 –st 3 65, 61; st 4 –st 4 70, 68. Genital shield weakly striate; distance between st 5 –st 5 68, 67. Ventrianal shield subpentagonal, reticulate; 117, 107 long, 96, 88 wide at ZV 2 level and 81, 75 wide at level of anus; with three pairs of pre-anal setae and a pair of pre-anal pores. Seta JV 5 39, 38. Ventral setae smooth, except JV 5, 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., 2010 b); Giza governorate (Zaher & El- Badry, 1962; El-Badry, 1970; Zaher, 1986; Romeih et al., 2010 b); 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 s 4 ( 40 according to that author).