Proprioseiopsis mexicanus (Garman 1958)
- Dataset
- Phytoseiid mites of Rodrigues Island (Acari: Mesostigmata)
- Rank
- SPECIES
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Arthropoda
- class
- Arachnida
- order
- Mesostigmata
- family
- Phytoseiidae
- genus
- Proprioseiopsis
- species
- Proprioseiopsis mexicanus
description
This species is known from all Islands of French West Indies (Kreiter and Moraes 1997; Moraes et al. 2000; Kreiter et al. 2006, 2018 c; Mailloux et al. 2010), but it was found only in very large numbers during a previous study on companion plants in Guadeloupe (Mailloux et al. 2010) and in a study on La Réunion (Le Bellec, unpub. data). This species seems to be very abundant on weeds in the lower vegetation. Phytoseiid mites of the genus Proprioseiopsis had been found mainly in ground surface, humus, litter, soil, moss or on grass (Muma and Denmark 1970; McMurtry et al. 2015). Proprioseiopsis mexicanus population increased when fed T. urticae eggs (Megevand et al. 1993) and seems to be a good predator of thrips (Kreiter, unpub. data). It is one of the prevailing phytoseiid species on citrus orchards in Alabama (Fadamiro et al. 2009). Denmark and Evans (2011) mentioned that the species can be reared on T. urticae and Oligonychus pratensis (Banks) and is associated with Bryobia praetiosa Koch, Bryobia spp. and P. ulmi. It was also found in association with Tetranychus evansi Baker and Pritchard (Furtado et al. 2014), but mentioned as a poor predator of that species. The biology of this species is however almost unknown. Proprioseiopsis mexicanus was already recorded in the Indian Ocean by Quilici et al. (2000) and Kreiter et al. (2020 c).
discussion
Remarks: measurement values of female specimens from Rodrigues fit well with all those indicated in Kreiter et al. (2018 c, 2020 c) for various countries.
distribution
World distribution: This species is distributed in many countries of the world, mainly in tropical areas.
materials_examined
Specimens examined: 2 ♀♀ in total. Citronelle, Plant Protection Service (388 m aasl, lat. 19 ° 42 ′ 02 ″ S, long. 63 ° 25 ′ 17 ″ E), 2 ♀♀ on Prunus persica (L.) Batsch (Rosaceae), 16 / XI / 2020.