Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot, 1957

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 : 209-210

Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot

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

Typhlodromus persimilis, Hirschmann 1962: 75 .

Phytoseiulus (Phytoseiulus) persimilis, Wainstein 1962: 17 .

Phytoseiulus riegeli Dosse 1958: 48-55 (synonymy according to Chant 1959).

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

Phytoseiulus persimilis is probably one of the best-known phytoseiid species in the world, because of its use to control T. urticae in greenhouses all over the world. It is a Mediterranean / subtropical predatory mite, 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 has been conducted on this predator-prey interactions (see review by Kostiainen and Hoy 1996), and numerous biological control programs have used P. persimilis against T. urticae on a wide range of ornamental and vegetable crops. P. persimilis was the first greenhouse biological control agents available commercially and it is one of the most successful BCA in the world. 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 ( Escudero and Ferragut 2005). This species is present in Slovenia probably because of its commercial introduction and uses in vegetable and ornamental greenhouses, dispersion of some specimens released and establishment in the environment.

This is the first report of that species from the Slovenian fauna.

World distribution: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, La Réunion Island, Latvia, Lebanon, Lybia, Martinique Island, Mauritius Island, Morocco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, USA, Venezuela.

Specimens examined: 6 ♀♀ in total. Sečovlje (aasl 2 m, lat. 45°28’33”N, long. 13°37’06”E), 6 ♀♀ on Cucumis sativus L. ( Cucurbitaceae ), 11/VII/2018.

Remarks: The description and measurements of the adult females collected agree with those provided by Ferragut et al. (2010) for specimens of Spain and by Kreiter et al. (2018, 2020) for specimens from Mauritius, La Réunion and various regions in the world.