Amblyseius obtusus ( Koch, 1839 ) sensu Karg 1960

CălugărK, Adina, StathakisK, Theodoros & Papadoulis, Georgios Th., 2023, Predatory mites of the family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) in Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (Romania), Acarologia 63 (1), pp. 58-66 : 60-61

Amblyseius obtusus ( Koch, 1839) sensu Karg 1960

Material examined — Murighiol, meadow (24 July 2015) 1 ♀ leg. Ivan, ICBI ; Murighiol, meadow (13 July 2018) 10 ♀♀ leg. Ivan, ICBI.

Length of setae — j1 27 (25–28), j3 39 (35–43), j4-j6, J2, J5, z2-z5, Z1 (minute), Z4 118 (90–139), Z5 282 (270–302), s4 97 (93–100), S2 9 (9–10), S4 9 (9–10), S5 9, r3 10, R 1 9

(7–10).

World distribution — Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Azores, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Haiti, Hawaii, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela ( Demite et al. 2022).

Hosts / Substrates — The neotype was found on rotten palm leaves, but A. obtusus is mostly present on herbaceous – Achillea spp. and Senecio spp. (Asteraceae) ( Papadoulis et al. 2009) and shrub plants. It was rarely observed on Vitis vinifera L. ( Vitaceae ) ( Tixier et al. 2013). Previously, in Romania A. obtusus was reported from moss samples (bark and soil moss) taken from mature (over 80 years) natural forests located between 378 and 1445 m asl ( Manu et al. 2018a).

Remarks — Amblyseius obtusus is a cosmopolitan species, reported in more than 30 countries ( Demite et al. 2022). Also, its ubiquity character is showed by the fact that it was found in Greece at 2300 m asl ( Papadoulis et al. 2009), in Romania in two parks of Bucharest

(75 m asl) ( Manu and Honciuc 2010), as well as at 378–1445 m asl ( Manu et al. 2018a) and with the occasion of our study at 11 m asl. However, in our study it was found in only meadow. Morphological characters and measurements of the Romanian specimens are very close to those described by Döker et al. (2020).