Phytoseius finitimus Ribaga, 1904

Kreiter, Serge, Amiri, Karima, Douin, Martial, Bohinc, Tanja, Trdan, Stanislav & Tixier, Marie-Stéphane, 2020, Phytoseiid mites of Slovenia (Acari: Mesostigmata): new records and first description of the male ofAmblyseius microorientalis, Acarologia 60 (2), pp. 203-242 : 226

Phytoseius finitimus Ribaga

Phytoseius finitimus Ribaga 1904: 178 ; Chant 1959: 108; Moraes et al. 1986: 214; 2004: 252; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 129.

Phytoseius (Dubininellus) finitimus, Wainstein 1959: 1365 .

Phytoseius (Pennaseius) finitimus, Pritchard & Baker 1962: 223 .

Pennaseius finitimus, Schuster & Pritchard 1963: 279 .

Phytoseius (Phytoseius) finitimus , Denmark 1966: 16.

Phytoseius dubinini (Beglyarov) (synonymy according to Pritchard & Baker 1962).

Having seta R1 and J2 present, this species belongs to the plumifer species group of the genus Phytoseius ( Chant and McMurtry 2007) .

This species is mainly reported in Mediterranean countries, and is especially frequent in Israel and Greece. It has been observed mainly on shrubs. A big confusion between P. finitimus and Phytoseius plumifer (Canestrini and Fanzago) has existed for a long time and a tentative solution has been proposed by Duso and Fontana (2002). We herein follow these authors and do not considered valid the synonymy between these species indicated in Moraes et al. (2004).

Phytoseius finitimus has been reported on grapevines and fig tree orchards in several countries in Europe. It seems to feed on P ulmi ( Duso and Moretto 1994) and various eriophyid mites ( Rasmy and El-Banhawy 1974b), and it consumes pollen ( Zaher et al., 1969; Rasmy and El-Banhawy 1975). High relative humidities and very hairy-leaved plants or varieties seem to be very suitable for P. finitimus ( Rasmy and El-Banhawy 1974a; Duso and Moretto 1994).

This is the first report of that species from Slovenia.

World distribution: Algeria, Azores, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, USA.

Specimens examined: 2 ♂♂ collected in total. Sečovlje, 58a (aasl 3 m, lat. 45°28’43”N, long. 13°37’28”E), 1 ♂ on Cornus sanguinea L. ( Cornaceae ) and 1 ♂ on Aesculus hippocastanum L. ( Sapindaceae ), 19/VI/2019.

Remarks: The measurements of the two adult males collected agree with those provided by Duso and Fontana (2002) and by Tixier et al. (2017).