Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard & Baker)

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 : 134

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 ; Beard 2001: 84; Chant & McMurtry 2003a:

37; Moraes et al. 2004a: 152; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 53.

In our specimens of this species, setae S5 are absent. So accordingly with Chant and McMurtry (2003b) all specimens belong to the orientalis species group.

Accordingly with these previous authors, and with Moraes et al. (2007), we consider that P. horrifer and P. orientalis are different valid species. Our specimens with longer setae s4, Z4, Z5, and lacking a distinctly short, thick, spatulate macroseta on genu I.

This species is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. The biology of P. horrifer remains totally unknown.

This is the first mention of this species from La Réunion Island.

Specimens examined: 13 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ + 1 im. in total, 12 ♀♀ + 1 ♂ measured. Le Tampon – Ligne des 400 (aasl 463 m, Long 55°30’36” E, Lat 21°17’24” S), 1 ♂ + 2 im. on Ipomoea purpurea (L.), 11/2/2017; Ravine Langevin – Grand-Galet Waterfall (aasl 850 m, Long 55°21’33” E, Lat 21°17’47” S), 7 ♀♀ on Desmodium incanum DC., 11/12/2016; Forêt de Bélouve – Gîte (aasl 1500 m, Long 55°33’36” E, Lat 21°6’0” S), 1 ♀ on Fuchsia boliviana Carrière , 20/12/16; Cilaos – Village (aasl 991 m, Long 55°27’0” E, Lat 21°8’24” S), 1 ♀ on Acalypha hispida Burm. f., 8/1/17; Saint-Pierre – Bassin-Plat CIRAD Research Station (aasl 153 m, Long 55°29’18” E, Lat 21°19’25” S), 1 ♀ in plot BM, 23/8/2016 ; 1 ♀ on M. coromandelianum , 19/6/2017; 1 ♀ on A. viridis , 20/6/2017.

Remarks: even if lengths of setae seem very variable in P. horrifer in the literature ( van der Merwe 1968; Moraes et al. 2007), measurements of morphological characters of La Réunion specimens ( Table 11 ) agree well with measurements found in the literature, being however slightly shorter for almost all characters compared with female and male specimens of South Africa ( van der Merwe 1968).