Neoseiulus longispinosus (Evans)

Kreiter, Serge, Bopp, Marie-Charlotte, Douin, Martial, Nguyen, Duc Tung & Wyckhuys, Kris, 2020, Phytoseiidae of Vietnam (Acari: Mesostigmata) with description of a new species, Acarologia 60 (1), pp. 75-110 : 77-79

Neoseiulus longispinosus (Evans)

Typhlodromus longispinosus Evans 1952: 413 ; Evans 1953: 465; Womersley 1954: 177; Ehara 1958: 55.

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) longispinosus, Chant 1959: 74 .

Amblyseius longispinosus, Corpuz & Rimando 1966: 129 ; Schicha 1975: 103.

Neoseiulus longispinosus, Moraes et al. 1986: 85 ; 2000: 245; Chant & McMurtry 2003a: 37; Moraes et al. 2004a: 129; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 29.

Specimens examined: Muoi in P4 plot (aasl 66 m, lat. 21°54’41” N, long. 104°38’7” E), 1 ♀ on Styrax tonkinensis (Styracaceae) , 12/V/2017; in P8 plot (aasl 66 m, lat. 21°54’46” N, long. 104°38’9” E), 1 im. on Bambusodae sp. ( Poaceae ), 17/V/2017; in P1 plot (aasl 66 m, lat. 21°54’ N, long. 104°38’ E), 1 ♀ an in plot SP5 plot (aasl 66 m, lat. 21°54’ N, long. 104°38’ E), 3 ♀♀, on Manihot esculenta (Euphorbiaceae) , 17/V/2017; in P11 plot (aasl 66 m, lat. 21°54’30” N, long. 104°38’14” E), 1 im. on Mallotus canii (Euphorbiaceae) , and 1 ♀ on Passiflora foetida (Passifloraceae) , 31/V/2017.

Remarks: this species is distributed in many countries of the world, mainly in tropical areas ( Moraes et al. 2000; Mailloux et al. 2010; Kreiter et al. 2013, 2018 a, c; Demite et al. 2020). It was rarely encountered before in surveys made in Guadeloupe, Martinique and La Réunion but was recently more captured when screening low vegetation constituting companion plants in citrus orchards ( Mailloux et al. 2010; Kreiter et al. 2013, 2018c; Le Bellec et al., unpub. data). This species appears to be more common on grasses of the lower vegetation with populations of tetranychid mites. Neoseiulus longispinosus , a type II phytoseiid predatory mite like N. californicus ( McMurtry et al. 2013) , is increasingly being considered for the control of Eutetranychus , Oligonychus , and Tetranychus spider mites in Asia (Nusartlert et al. 2011). Its behaviour, feeding, development, prey consumption, cannibalism and intra-guild predation have been extensively studied by several authors (see for example Luong et al. 2017), with the ultimate aim to enhance its use for biological control. Neoseiulus longispinosus is a well-known BCA sold in several countries and commercially-available for management of spider mites. Under controlled laboratory conditions, N. longispinosus exhibits potential as a BCA against the citrus red spider mite P. citri ( Huyen et al., 2017) .

This species was already known from Vietnam and reported as a local BCA in earlier survey work ( Nguyen et al. 2016) though no measurements were given. Measurements of female specimens collected during this study are given in table 1 and compared with measurements obtained from specimens collected in other countries of Asia and Islands of the Indian Ocean. Measurements match with most of the previous measurements, especially with those obtained on specimens from La Réunion Island. The setal lengths of the present females are longer than those obtained from the holotype, which are in the lower part of the range of data obtained for each seta (probably measurements were obtained from a very small size female).