Paraphytoseius orientalis (Narayanan, Kaur & Ghai)

Kreiter, Serge & Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A., 2020, New records of phytoseiid mites from Mauritius Island (Acari: Mesostigmata, Acarologia 60 (3), pp. 520-545 : 523-524

Paraphytoseius orientalis (Narayanan, Kaur & Ghai)

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) orientalis Narayanan, Kaur & Ghai 1960: 394 .

Paraphytoseius orientalis, Moraes et al. 1986: 105, 2004: 162 ; Chant & McMurtry 2003b: 220, 2007: 53.

Amblyseius ipomeai Narayanan, Kaur & Ghai 1960: 394 (synonymy according to El-Banhawy 1984).

Paraphytoseius multidentatus Swirski & Shechter 1961: 114 (synonymy according to Matthysse & Denmark 1981 in Denmark et al. 1999).

Paraphytoseius narayanani Ehara 1967: 67 (synonymy according to Ehara & Ghai, in Ehara 1967).

This species belongs to the genus Paraphytoseius and to the orientalis species group ( Chant and McMurtry 2003b). Our specimens with relatively shorter setae s4, Z4 and Z5, having a distinctly short, thick, spatulate macroseta on genu I is belonging to the species P. orientalis . It is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas in South America, Africa and Asia. It belongs to a genus included in the large polyphagous generalist group named type III phytoseiid mites ( McMurtry and Croft 1997; McMurtry et al. 2013). Navasero and Navasero (2016) had studied the life history of P. orientalis on the broad mite ( Polyphagotarsonemus latus ) (Banks) as prey and reported high predation rates on the eggs P. of latus , suggesting good potential for the control of this pest. Paraphytoseius orientalis had been collected before in Mauritius ( Kreiter et al. 2018a; Ferragut and Baumann 2019).

World distribution: Argentina, Brazil, Burundi, India, Japan, Kenya, La Réunion Island, Madagascar Island, Martinique Island, Mauritius Island, Mozambique, Rwanda.

Specimens examined: 20 ♀♀ and 3 ♂♂ in total. Rivière des Anguilles, Bridge (aasl 158 m, lat. 20°28 ′ 49 ″ S, long. 57°33 ′ 37 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Solanum mauritianum Scopoli (Solanaceae) , 31/X/2018; Réserve Nationale de Pétrins, Chemin de Maccabée (aasl 676 m, lat. 20°29 ′ 26 ″ S, long. 57°33 ′ 31 ″ E), 19 ♀♀ and 3 ♂♂ on Urena lobata L. ( Malvaceae ), 6/XI/2018.

Remarks: this species was reported before by Kreiter et al. (2018a), but with only one female collected. Ferragut and Baumann (2019) had also reported P. orientalis , but with a lot of specimens. Morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements fit well measurements in Ferragut and Baumann (2019) and Kreiter et al. (2020b, c). This species was described from Asia ( Narayanan et al. 1960) and recently recorded from Vietnam ( Kreiter et al. 2020b), and also in La Réunion Island ( Kreiter et al. 2020c). It seems more common than P. horrifer in Mauritius Island.