Phytoseius amba Pritchard & Baker, 1962

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 : 258-259

Phytoseius amba Pritchard & Baker

Phytoseius (Pennaseius) amba Pritchard & Baker 1962: 224 , Blommers 1976: 85.

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) amba , Denmark 1966: 49.

Typhlodromus (Pizytoseius) amba, van der Merwe 1968: 101 .

Phytoseius amba, Swirski & Ragusa 1978: 408 .

Pennaseius amba, Matthysse & Denmark 1981: 352 .

Phytoseius amba, Moraes et al. 1986: 210, 2004b: 232 , Chant & McMurtry 2007: 129.

This species belongs to the horridus species group ( Chant and McMurtry 1994) as setae

R1 and J2 are present. Species of the genus Phytoseius are supposed to belong to the Type III species ( McMurtry and Croft 1997 ; McMurtry et al. 2013), i.e., a polyphagous generalist predator. However, the biology of Phytoseius amba remains totally unknown.

World distribution: Anjouan Island, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Grande Comore Island, Kenya, Madagascar Island, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Reunion

Island, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Specimens examined: three specimens (6 ♀♀, 2 ♂♂ and 1 imm.) collected during this study. Moroni, Le Kalyptus Hotel (24 m aasl, lat. 11°40 ′ 58 ″ S, long. 43°15 ′ 45 ″ E), 5 ♀♀

and 2 ♂♂ on Clerodendrum speciosissimum Van Geert ex. Morren ( Verbenaceae ), 7/XII/2018 ;

Mdé, INRAPE (51 m aasl, lat. 11°44 ′ 12 ″ S, long. 43°14 ′ 59 ″ E), 1 ♀ and 1 imm. on Averrhoa bilimbi L. ( Oxalidaceae ), 11/XII/2018.

Remarks: measurements of the specimens collected during this study agree well with measurements of the literature, especially with those of Ueckermann et al. (2007) obtained with a great number of specimens (29) from various countries in Africa, with those of Kreiter et al. (2020d) for specimens from La Réunion, with those of Kreiter et al. (2018b) for specimens from Grande Comore and with those of Kreiter et al. (2021a) for specimens from Anjouan

Island.