Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) muliebris van der Merwe

Kreiter, Serge & Abo-Shnaf, Reham I. A., 2020, New records of phytoseiid mites from Mauritius Island (Acari: Mesostigmata, Acarologia 60 (3), pp. 520-545 : 539

Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) muliebris van der Merwe

Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) muliebris van der Merwe 1968: 28 ; Moraes et al. 2004: 337; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 155; Ueckermann et al. 2008: 69.

Amblydromella muliebris, Moraes et al. 1986: 168 .

Amblydromella (Amblydromella) muliebris, Denmark & Welbourn 2002: 308 .

This species belongs to the large rhenanus species group ( Chant and McMurtry 1994). It was described by van der Merwe (1968) from South Africa and then reported by El-Banhawy and Knapp (2011) from Kenya. The biology of this species is totally unknown. This is the first report of this species from Mauritius and from a country outside the Africa continent.

World distribution: Kenya, South Africa.

Specimens examined: 3 ♀♀ in total. Chamouny (aasl 192 m, lat. 20°28 ′ 42 ″ S, long. 57°29 ′ 11 ″ E), 3 ♀♀ on Solanum torvum Swartz (Solanaceae) , 31/X/2018.

Remarks: morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements of our specimens fit well measurements of the original description by van der Merwe (1968) and new descriptions by Ueckermann et al. (2008) and El-Banhawy and Knapp (2011) concerning specimens from South Africa and Kenya, respectively.