Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard & Baker)

Kreiter, Serge, Payet, Rose-My, Mouigni, Hadji, Douin, Martial, Tixier, Marie-Stéphane & Azali, Hamza Abdou, 2021, New records of phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) of Grande Comore Island (Comoros Archipelago), Acarologia 61 (2), pp. 241-273 : 246-247

Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard & Baker)

Amblyseius (Ptenoseius) horrifer Pritchard & Baker 1962: 295 .

Amblyseius horrifer, Meyer & Rodrigues 1966: 30 .

Amblyseius (Paraphytoseius) horrifer, van der Merwe 1968: 169 .

Proprioseius (Paraphytoseius) horrifer, Karg 1983: 302 .

Paraphytoseius horrifer, Moraes et al. 1986: 105, 2004b: 161 , Beard 2001: 84, Chant & McMurtry 2003a: 37, 2007: 53.

In all our specimens of Paraphytoseius , setae S5 are absent. So according to Chant and McMurtry (2003b), they belong to the orientalis species group. As the previous authors, and Moraes et al. (2007b), we also recognise P. horrifer and P. orientalis as two valid species. Our specimens with longer setae s4, Z4, Z5, and with no distinctly short, thick, spatulate macroseta on genu I belongs to the former species. This species is widely distributed in Sub­Saharan Africa and Madagascar. The biology P of. horrifer remains totally unknown. It was mentioned recently for the first from several countries: Mauritius ( Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020b), La Réunion ( Kreiter et al. 2020c), Rodrigues (Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020a) and Vietnam (Kreiter et al. 2020b).

World distribution: Benin, DR Congo, Ghana, India, Kenya, La Réunion Island, Madagascar Island, Malawi, Mauritius Island, Mayotte Island, Mozambique, Reunion Island, Rodrigues Island, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam.

Specimens examined: 5 specimens (4 ♀♀ and 1 ♂) collected during this study. Mvouni, University of Comoros (434 m aasl, lat. 11°43 ′ 11 ″ S, long. 43°16 ′ 31 ″ E), 1 ♀ on Rubus rosifolius Smith (Rosaceae) , 6/XII/2018 ; Moroni, Le Kalyptus Hotel (24 m aasl, lat. 11°40 ′ 58 ″

S, long. 43°15 ′ 45 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ on Annona senegalensis Persoon (Annonacae) , 7/XII/2018 ; Djoumoichongo (230 m aasl, lat. 11°48 ′ 34 ″ S, long. 43°17 ′ 37 ″ E), 1 ♀ and 1 ♂ on Occimum gratissimum L. ( Lamiaceae ), 10/XII/2018.

Remarks: morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements fit well measurements from Kreiter et al. (2020b, c, d, Kreiter et al. 2021a). This species described from Africa ( Pritchard and Baker 1962) was first mentioned in the Indian Ocean from La Réunion Island ( Kreiter et al. 2020d) but is also present in Rodrigues, Mauritius, Mayotte and Anjouan Islands (Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020a, b, Kreiter et al. 2020a, Kreiter et al. 2021a).

It was the more abundant species in Anjouan Island ( Kreiter et al. 2021a).