Amblyseius herbicolus (Chant)

Kreiter, Serge, Payet, Rose-My, Mouigni, Hadji, Douin, Martial, Tixier, Marie-Stéphane & Azali, Hamza Abdou, 2021, New records of phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) of Grande Comore Island (Comoros Archipelago), Acarologia 61 (2), pp. 241-273 : 251-252

Amblyseius herbicolus (Chant)

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) herbicolus Chant 1959: 84 .

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) herbicolus, Muma 1961: 287 .

Typhlodromus herbicolus, Hirschmann 1962: 23 .

Amblyseius herbicolus, Moraes et al. 1986: 14, 1989a: 79 , 2004b: 27, Chant & McMurtry

2004: 208, 2007: 78.

Amblyseius impactus Chaudhri 1968: 553 (synonymy according to Daneshvar & Denmark

1982).

Typhlodromus (Amblyseius) amitae Bhattacharyya 1968: 677 (synonymy according to Denmark

& Muma 1989).

Amblyseius deleoni Muma & Denmark 1970: 68 (synonymy according to Daneshvar & Denmark 1982).

Amblyseius giganticus Gupta 1981: 33 (synonymy according to Gupta 1986).

Amblyseius (Amblyseialus) thermophilus Karg 1991: 12 (synonymy according to El­Banhawy

& Knapp 2011).

Like the two previous species, A. herbicolus belongs also to the largoensis species group and to the largoensis species subgroup ( Chant and McMurtry 2004).

Amblyseius herbicolus is widespread in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is the second most abundant phytoseiid mites on Coffea arabica L. in Brazil, associated with Brevipalpus phoenicis (Geijskes) , vector of the coffee ring spot virus and it was found to be an efficient predator ( Reis et al. 2007). Amblyseius herbicolus is also found associated with the broad mite, P. latus , in crops such as chili pepper ( Capsicum annuum L.) in Brazil and has also a good potential for controlling the pest. Rodriguez­Cruz et al. (2013) had studied biological, reproductive and life table parameters of A. herbicolus on three different diets: broad mites, castor bean pollen ( Ricinus communis L.) and sun hemp pollen ( Crotalaria juncea L.). The predator was able to develop and reproduce on all these three diets. However, its intrinsic growth rate was higher on broad mites and castor bean pollen. Feeding on alternative food such as pollen can facilitate the predator’s mass rearing and maintain its population on crops when prey is absent or scarce. Many polyphagous generalist phytoseiid mites are important natural enemies because they can feed on plant provided pollen and various prey species, and thus persist in crops even in the absence of target pests ( McMurtry et al. 2013). Hence, populations of these predators can be established in a crop by providing alternative food, thus increasing biological control. Alternative food affects P. latus control on chilli pepper plants by predatory mites ( Duarte et al. 2015). Amblyseius herbicolus had high oviposition and population growth rates when fed with cattail pollen Typha (latifolia L.), chilli pepper pollen and bee­collected pollen, and a low rate on the alternative prey ( Tetranychus urticae Koch ). Supplementing pepper plants with pollen resulted in better control of broad mite populations ( Duarte et al.

2015). Release of A. herbicolus on young plants with a weekly addition of honeybee pollen or cattail pollen until plants produce flowers seems a viable strategy to sustain populations of this predator ( Duarte et al. 2015).

World distribution: Anjouan Island, Argentina, Australia, Azores, Benin, Brazil, Burundi, Canary Islands, China, Colombia, Grande Comore Island, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,

Dr Congo, El Salvador, Ghana, Guadeloupe Island, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, India, Iran, Kenya, Les Saintes, La Réunion and Madagascar Islands, Malawi, Malaysia, Martinique Island, Mauritius Island, Mohéli Island, New Caledonia Island, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Rodrigues Island, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Venezuela, West Indies.

Specimens examined: two specimens (2 ♀♀) collected during this study. Ivembeni,

Banda Samlini (791 m aasl, lat. 11°29 ′ 22 ″ S, long. 43°19 ′ 36 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ on Rubus rosifolius Smith (Rosaceae) , 7/XII/2018.

Remarks: morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements fit well with measurements provided in Kreiter et al. (2018b, 2020c, d, 2021a, b) and Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf (2020a, b). Amblyseius herbicolus was previously recorded in many countries of the world and especially in French West Indies ( Moraes et al. 2000, Kreiter et al. 2006). It was first reported by Kreiter et al. (2018b) in the Comoros Archipelago in Grande Comore Island with two females collected. Amblyseius herbicolus was reported in the past from La Réunion Island with only few specimens ( Quilici et al. 1997, 2000) and more recently many specimens ( Kreiter et al. 2020d). It is also reported recently from Vietnam ( Kreiter et al. 2020c), Rodrigues and Maurice Islands (Kreiter and Abo­Shnaf 2020a, b) but only from females. Males were however found among several females in Mohéli and will be redescribed in a following paper.