Neoseiulus teke Pritchard & Baker

K, Moustapha Touré, KwadjoK, Koffi Eric, DoumbiaK, Mamadou & KreiterK, Serge, 2025, New records of species of the family Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Ivory Coast, Acarologia 65 (1), pp. 3-35 : 8-9

Neoseiulus teke Pritchard & Baker

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) teke Pritchard & Baker 1962: 239 .

Amblyseius teke, Meyer & Rodrigues 1966: 30 ; Moraes et al. 1989a: 83 ; Moraes et al. 1989b: 97.

Neoseiulus teke, Moraes et al. 1986: 98 ; Chant & McMurtry 2003: 37 ; Moraes et al. 2004b:147 ; Chant & McMurtry 2007: 31.

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) bibens Blommers 1973: 111 (synonymy according to Ueckermann & Loots 1988).

Like N. longispinosus , N. teke belongs to the barkeri species group and to the womersleyi species subgroup (see above) ( Chant and McMurtry 2003).

This species is found in sub-Saharan Africa often associated with Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar) , the cassava green mite (CGM) . It has been studied for its potential as BCA against the CGM. Nwilene and Nachman (1996) studied its reproduction characteristics on M. tanajoa .

It was more efficient than Iphiseius degenerans (Berlese) but seems not efficient enough in field conditions ( Nwilene and Nachman 1996). Quilici et al. (2000) and Kreiter et al. (2020c) have collected this specieson La Réunion Island. Measurements of specimens collected during this study are provided in table 3. This is the first record of that species for Ivory Coast.

Specimens examined — a single specimen (1 ♀) collected between 14/III/2017 and 10/III/ 2018 in Abidjan, Anyama Ahoue (aasl 42 m, Lat 5°26′00.87″N, Long 3°55′00.60″W),

on Carica papaya L.

World distribution — Burundi, DR Congo, Ghana, Grande Comore Island ( Comoros), Kenya, Madeira Island ( Portugal), Malawi, Mayotte Island ( France), Mohéli Island ( Comoros), Mozambique, La Réunion Island ( France), Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

Remarks — The measurements of morphological characters for the single N. teke female specimen from Ivory Coast ( Table 3) are very close to those of specimens from neighbouring countries, especially from various African countries and La Réunion. However, they differ from the holotype from Congo ( Zannou et al. 2006) and specimens from South Africa, which are larger ( van der Merwe 1965).

As this species is a potential BCA, and as it is very difficult to obtain type specimens from

Museum for old described species, it would be very important to undertake molecular studies and / or crossbreeding experiments with population collected in the field to determine whether all specimens of this various countries / locations belong to the same species or represent several different cryptic species.