Amblyseius anomalus Van der Merwe

Ueckermann, E. A., Situngu, Sivuyisiwe & Barker, Nigel P., 2021, Checklist of Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) species from plants bearing leaf domatia, from the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, with the description of a new species, Journal of Natural History 55 (11 - 12), pp. 683-697 : 688

Amblyseius anomalus Van der Merwe

Amblyseius anomalus Van der Merwe, 1968: 157

Amblyseius (Multiseius) anomalus Denmark & Muma, 1989: 129

Because of its unique spermatheca Denmark and Muma (1989) grouped this species under an Unassigned Species Group together with 5 other Amblyseius species with unique spermathecae, but Chant and McMurtry (2004) listed this species in the andersoni speciesgroup. All dorsal setae of this species are minute and smooth except for setae s4, Z4 and Z5 which are exceptionally long and also smooth. The major duct of the spermatheca is a broad tube that suddenly narrows before it joins the bulbous atrium, adjacent to the atrium the calyx is a slender stalk that suddenly flares drastically. Fixed digit of chelicerae multidentate.

World distribution: Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, South Africa. To give an indication of the abundance of each known species the reported times it was samples are given. Thus this excludes routine samples. This species was sampled 16 times since description, present study included ( Ueckermann and Loots 1988; Zannou et al., 2007)

Specimens examined: 2 ♀♀.

Kwelera, East London, on Grewia occidentalis L. ( Malvaceae ), 27 September 2014; Alexandria Forest, on Gardenia thunbergia L.f. ( Rubiaceae ), 28 August 2014.