Description of an unrecorded phytoseiid mite, Neoseiulus harrowi (Collyer), from Japanese spinach greenhouses.

Abstract

A 2008-2010 survey of mite fauna in spinach greenhouses found 24 females of a phytoseiid mite species of the genus Neoseiulus in soil and spinach sprouts. This species was identified as N. harrowi (Collyer), described originally in New Zealand and Australia and new to Japan. This species is the fourth member of the N. barkeri species group among Japanese phytoseiid fauna, and was given the Japanese name ‘hourensou-kaburidani’. The species was observed associating with a spinach-damaging mite, Tyrophagus similis Volgin, in the greenhouse. The present paper describes the habitat of N. harrowi and presents a simple method of distinguishing it from the three other domestic species of the N. barkeri group (N. barkeri Hughes, N. makuwa (Ehara), N. womersleyi (Schicha)).