Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) ndibu Pritchard & Baker, 1962

Kreiter, Serge, Payet, Rose-My, Douin, Martial, Fontaine, Olivier, Jacques, Fillâtre & Bellec, Fabrice Le, 2020, Phytoseiidae of La Réunion Island (Acari: Mesostigmata): three new species and two males described, new synonymies, and new records, Acarologia 60 (1), pp. 111-195 : 182-183

Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) ndibu Pritchard & Baker

Typhlodromus ndibu Pritchard & Baker 1962: 221 .

Amblydromella ndibu, Moraes et al. 1986: 168 ; Denmark & Welbourn 2002.

Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) ndibu, Moraes et al. 2004a: 339 ; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 155.

This species belongs to the large rhenanus species group as setae S4, JV3 and JV4 are present, the setae on dorsal shield are setiform, approximately equal in length except Z4 / Z5, setae r3 and R1 are inserted on lateral integument and setae on dorsal shield in the z-Z and s-S series shorter than distances between their bases.

In the literature, Pritchard described this species and Baker (1962) from Congo and Rwanda, recorded than from Nigeria ( Matthysse and Denmark 1981), from Indonesia ( Oomen 1982), from Kenya ( El-Banhawy et al. 2009) and our specimens are very similar to the original description based on drawings. This species has very original characters.

Surprisingly, no measurements were given in all papers mentioning this species, even the original description. Measurements are given in the table 38 for the first time for the three adult female specimens and for the single adult male specimen.

This species if mentioned for the first time from La Réunion, from primary forest of medium altitude. Its biology is totally unknown.

Specimens examined: 3 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ in total, all measured. Forêt de Bélouve – Gite (aasl 1500m, Long 55°33’36” E, Lat 21°6’0” S), 3 ♀♀ on C. borbonica , 28/1/2017; Forêt de Bélouve – Trou de fer (aasl 1300 m, Long 55°33’36” E, Lat 21°2’24” S), 1 ♂ on A. heterophylla , 28/1/2017 .

Remarks: this species has short subequal setae except Z 5 in females which are around the double length of all other dorsal setae. The ventrianal shield of the female quadrangular, almost square, and as large as wide. Setae Z5, JV5 and the four macrosetae of the leg IV are knobbed ( Table 38 ).