Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot

Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot 1957: 347; Moraes et al., 1986: 109, 2004: 169; Chant & McMurtry 2006a: 20, 2007: 55.

Phytoseiulus (Phytoseiulus) persimilis, Wainstein 1962: 17 .

Typhlodromus persimilis, Hirschmann 1962: 2 .

Phytoseiulus longipes Evans 1958: 306 (synonymy according to Denmark et al. 1999).

Phytoseiulus riegeli Dosse 1958: 48 (synonymy according to Chant 1959).

Phytoseiulus tardi (Lombardini 1959): 166 (synonymy according to Kennett & Caltagirone 1968).

Phytoseiulus persimilis is a Mediterranean / subtropical predatory mite that is a type I species, i.e., a specialist predator of the urticae species group of the genus Tetranychus (McMurtry and Croft 1997; McMurtry et al. 2013). Considerable research had been conducted on this predator-prey interaction (see review by Kostiainen and Hoy 1996), and numerous biological control programs had used P. persimilis against T. urticae on a wide range of ornamental and vegetable crops. Phytoseiulus persimilis was the first greenhouse biological control agent available commercially and is one of the most successful biological control agents. It can also be used in temperate climates on open-field crops such as strawberries. Optimum conditions are 20-27 °C and relative humidity of 60-90%. Cooler or warmer temperatures may have a negative effect on reproduction, development and efficiency of this predatory mite. This species is present on Rodrigues probably because of its commercial introduction and uses in vegetable and ornamental greenhouses, dispersion of some specimens released and establishment in the environment. This species was reared and sold on La Réunion and commercialized in Mascareignes since a long time (Quilici, personal communication).

World distribution: widely distributed in Africa, Australia, Europe, especially Mediterranean countries, South America, and Asia, probably after largely distributed commercial uses in the world, dispersion in the environment in at least some locations and establishments of this species.

Specimens examined: 2 ♀♀ in total. Port Sud-Est, Sea Front (2 m aasl, lat. 19°44 ′ 36 ″ S, long. 63°25 ′ 17 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ on Solanum melongena L. ( Solanaceae), 11/XI/2018.

Remarks: measurements of adult females collected in this work agree very well with measurements in the literature, especially those of Ueckermann et al. (2007).

Macrosetae on basitarsus of leg IV are not serrated, but macrosetae of genu and tibia are serrated and there is no pre-anal macrosetae on the ventrianal shield. These are key characters of P. persimilis in comparison with the closely related species Phytoseiulus macropilis (Banks) (Okassa et al. 2010) .