Euseius ovaloides (Blommers)

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 : 27-29

Euseius ovaloides (Blommers)

Amblyseius (Amblyseius) ovaloides Blommers 1974: 147 .

Euseius ovaloides, Moraes et al. 1986: 51 , 2004b: 78, Chant & McMurtry 2005b: 215, 2007:121.

Euseius ovaloides was described by Blommers (1974) from specimens collected on Citrus hystrix de Candolle ( Rutaceae ) and Persea americana Miller ( Lauraceae ) on Madagascar. Like all Euseius species, this species belongs to the type IV (pollinophagous generalist predators) of

McMurtry and Croft (1997) and McMurtry et al. (2013). The species has been occasionally recorded from Madagascar (Blommers 1974), Papua-New Guinea ( Schicha and Gutierrez

1985), Seychelles ( Schicha 1987), La Réunion Island, ( Quilici et al. 1997, 2000, Kreiter et al.

2020c), Guadeloupe, Martinique and Marie-Galante ( Moraes et al. 2000 ; Kreiter et al. 2006)

on various plants. Although its biology remains unknown, it is suspected to be a poor predator of tetranychid mites ( Gutierrez and Etienne 1986) but can be considered as a potential predator of thrips and whiteflies. It is one of the most common species on La Réunion Island ( Kreiter et al. 2020c). This is the first record of this species from the Ivory Coast.

Specimens examined — a single specimen (1 ♂) collected during this study 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 — Guadeloupe Island ( France), Madagascar Island, Marie-Galante

Island ( France), Martinique Island ( France), Mauritius Island, Mayotte Island ( France),

Papua New Guinea, La Réunion Island ( France), Rodrigues Island ( Mauritius), Seychelles

Archipelago, Vietnam.

Remarks — The measurements of specimens from the Ivory Coast (table 19) are very close to those of specimens from other regions, with slightly longer dimensions, especially for

Ivory Coast (5) (this Ivory Coast (5) (this

Characters Characters

study) study)

dsl 281 (275–288) st1 –st1 54 (53–55)

dsw s4 209 (203–218) st2 –st2 63 (60–65)

dsw R1 208 (203–216) st3 –st3 60 (59–60)

j1 27 (25–28) st4 –st4 48 (47–49)

j3 12 (11–13) st5 –st5 38 (37–39)

j4 8 (8–9) st1 –st5 108 (107–110)

j5 8 (8–9) vsl 110 (108–113)

j6 10 (8–11) vsw ant. corn. 157 (153–160)

J2 13 (12–13) Vsw anus 61 (55–65)

J5 6 (5–6) gv3-gv3 26 (25 – 27)

r3 17 (16–18) JV5 26 (25–28)

R1 12 (10–13) SgeII 24 (23–25)

s4 22 (20–24) SgeIII 29 (28–30)

S2 15 (14–16) StiIII 28 (27–28)

S4 13 (12–13) SgeIV 47 (45–50)

S5 12 (11–13) StiIV 34 (34–35)

z2 12 (11–13) StIV 57 (53–60)

z4 13 (12–13) fdl, teeth 21 (20–22)

z5 10 (9–11) mdl, teeth 23 (23–24)

Z1 12 (12–13) shaft 21 (20–22)

Z4 13 (12–14) branch 5 (5–6)

Z5 52 (50–53)

Characters Ivory Coast (1) Cape Sudan (1) Yemen Characters Ivory Coast (1) Cape Sudan (1) Yemen (this study) Verde (6) (1) (this study) Verde (6) (1) dsl 250 239–262 263 261 st1 –st1 54 – – – dsw s4 175 139–165 165 180 st2 –st2 65 82 – 110 dsw R 1 200 – – – st3 –st3 65 – – – j1 30 39–43 – 28 st4 –st4 55 – – – j3 35 39–43 – 38 st5 –st5 40 – – – j4 10 15–23 – 23 st1 –st5 123 131 – 128 j5 13 23–26 – 26 vsl 93 92 – 98 j6 33 39–43 – 41 vsw ant. corn. 163 146 – 161 J2 28 32–34 – 38 Vsw anus 63 – – – J5 3 5–6 – 3 gv3-gv3 24 – – – r3 20 23–26 – 21 JV5 30 31 – – R 1 10 9–15 – 13 SgeI 30 – – 32 s4 55 – – 55 SgeII 25 28–31 – 30 S2 40 39 –42 – 45 SgeIII 30 34–39 – 37 S4 28 28 –30 – 27 StiIII 28 26–28 – 25 S5 28 31 –39 – 28 SgeIV 50 48–54 – 50 z2 28 35–37 – 30 StiIV 38 39–40 – 33 z4 28 46–54 – 43 StIV 58 48–54 – 60 z5 9 12–15 – 11 fdl, teeth 23 – – – Z1 28 39–40 – 41 mdl, teeth 20 – – – Z4 28 31–39 – 38 shaft 23 – – – Z5 55 54–57 – 50 Branch 5 – – – Sources of measurements – Cape Verde: Ueckermann (1992) but identified as E. neotutsi ; Sudan: El-Badry (1968); Yemen: Ueckermann (1996); –: not reported.

the macrosetae, except for setae j1, which are shorter. The morphological and morphometric characters, as well as all measurements of our single male specimen fit well with measurements reported by Kreiter et al. (2020c).

This species was recently reported from Rodrigues and Mauritius Islands ( Kreiter and Abo-Shnaf 2020a, b), Mayotte Island (Kreiter et al. 2020a), Vietnam (Kreiter et al. 2020b), and Grande Comore ( Kreiter et al. 2021), all located in the Indian Ocean. But, E. ovaloides seems not reported from other African countries. This species was the second most collected species in a study conducted in Mauritius, compared to A. herbicolus ( Kreiter & Abo-Shnaf 2020b) and it was also very common on La Réunion ( Kreiter et al. 2020c) but less common in Mayotte and Grande Comore Islands (Kreiter et al. 2020a, 2021). In our study, only one specimen was collected.