Proprioseiopsis messor ( Wainstein, 1960 )

CălugărK, Adina, StathakisK, Theodoros & Papadoulis, Georgios Th., 2023, Predatory mites of the family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) in Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (Romania), Acarologia 63 (1), pp. 58-66 : 63

Proprioseiopsis messor ( Wainstein, 1960)

Material examined — Letea-Hăşmacul Mare, forest (11 May 2016) 1 ♀ leg. Ivan, ICBI.

Length of setae — j1 38, j3 50, j4-j6, z5, Z1 S2, S4 (minute), J5 10, z2, z4 (broken), Z4

163, Z5 217, s4 120, S5 (broken), r3 20, R 1 15.

World distribution — Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canary Islands, Egypt, France, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, New Zealand, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, USA ( Demite et al. 2022) and Romania (this study).

Hosts / Substrates — Poaceae – grass, white clover, strawberry, apple, plum, and plants ( Schicha 1987), Poaceae , pine litter, humus, moss, on Portulaca spp. (Portulacaceae) ( Papadoulis et al. 2009).

Remarks — Proprioseiopsis messor is a cosmopolitan species reported in many countries and a common one, being found on many plants. However, only one specimen of P. messor was found in our study. The single collected specimen from Romania has morphological characters like the redescription provided by Ostovan et al. (2012). However, the dorsal setae z4 and z5

of the Romanian specimens are not serrate and have longer lengths than those from Iran, being comparable with populations of P. messor found in Ukraine ( Ostovan et al. 2012).