Phytoseiid mites of the French Guiana (Acari: Mesostigmata)

Only little information is available of the diversity of Phytoseiidae in French Guiana. So far, only one mite species of the family Phytoseiidae have been actually recorded, Amblydromalus limonicus. We report in this paper the results of a small survey conducted at the end of October / Mid November 2001 in French Guiana, during which 5 species have been newly recorded, one being re-described in this paper.


Introduction
Mites of the family Phytoseiidae are known mostly for their predatory habit on phytophagous mites and small insects, like thrips and whiteflies, on cultivated plants and plants of the natural vegetation.
Several species are biological control agents commercialized for the control of pest organisms in both open and protected crops all around the world (McMurtry and Croft 1997; McMurtry et al. 2013; Knapp et al. 2018. This family is widespread, present on all continents except Antarctica, and it consists of about 2,500 valid species in 94 genera and three subfamilies (Demite et al. 2021).
Biodiversity surveys in poorly investigated areas is still an urgent need and might result in the discovery of additional species potentially useful for biological control as well as in the acquisition of information on the biodiversity of these areas (Kreiter et al. 2018a, b, c, 2020a, b, c, d, 2021a, b, c; Ferragut and Baumann 2019, 2021; Döker et al. 2020; Kreiter and Abo-Shnaf 2020a, b; Fang et al. 2020; Demite et al. 2021; Toldi et al. 2021. Located close to Amazonas, Guianas constitutes one of the world's highest biodiversity places. The concept of biodiversity hotspot was defined by Myers (1988) in order to identify the most immediately important areas for biodiversity conservation. These hotspots hold high endemism levels and have lost at least 70% of their original natural vegetation (Myers et al. 2000). Knowledge about the phytoseiid diversity in these areas may contribute to future establishment of conservation programs.
Located in South America, in the North Atlantic Ocean Coast, at more than 7000 km from Paris, French Guiana is one of the Guianas and the only one territorial collectivity of France in this area. It borders Brazil to the east and south (State of Amapá) and Suriname to the west.
Only one phytoseiid species has been recorded until now from this large geographical area, Amblydromalus limonicus (Garman and McGregor), recorded by Murphy (1984).
The objective of this paper is to present the phytoseiid species recorded during a small survey conducted at the end of 2001 in some localities of French Guianas.

Material and methods
The survey took place in October -November, 2001, collecting the phytoseiid mites found on leaves of cultivated and wild plants examined in the field and transferring them to vials containing 70% ethanol. All collections were made by Cécile Rault (Sud-Agro Formation, Bordeaux, France).
The mites were then mounted in Hoyer's medium (Walter and Krantz 2009) for later examination and identification using a phase and interferential contrast microscope (DMLB, Leica Microsystèmes SAS, Nanterre, France). Characters of specimens were measured using a graded eyepiece. Chant andMcMurtry's (1994, 2007) concepts of the taxonomy of the family Phytoseiidae for identification and the world catalogue database of Demite et al. (2014Demite et al. ( , 2021 for distribution and information on descriptions and re-descriptions were used. The setal nomenclature system adopted was that of Lindquist & Evans (1965) and Lindquist (1994) as adapted to the phytoseiids by Rowell et al. (1978) and Chant & Yoshida-Shaul (1989) for the dorsal surface and by Chant & Yoshida-Shaul (1991) for the ventral surface. Pore (= solenostome) and poroid (= lyrifissure) notations are that of Athias-Henriot (1975). Macrosetal notation (Sge = genual macroseta; Sti = tibial macroseta; St = tarsal macroseta) are that of Muma and Denmark (1970). Numbers of teeth on the fixed and movable cheliceral digits do not include the respective apical tooth. Setae not referred to in the result section should be considered as absent. All measurements are given in micrometres and presented with the mean in bold followed by the range in parenthesis. Type of spermatheca or insemination apparatus are that of Denmark and Evans (2011). Only some species with only few measurements mentioned in the literature are provided in this paper. Classification of plants follows the APG IV classification of 2016 (ex. Byng et al. 2018).
Specimens of each species are deposited in the mite collections of Montpellier SupAgro conserved in UMR CBGP INRA/IRD/CIRAD/SupAgro/University of Montpellier.
The following abbreviations are used in this paper for institutions: CBGP = Centre de

Results and discussion
A total of five species have been recorded.

Typhlodromips scleroticus De Leon
Typhlodromips scleroticus De Leon, 1966: 96; Moraes et al. 1986: 147, 2004: 223; Chant & McMurtry 2005b: 327, 2007 This species was described by De Leon (1966) from the Nature Reserve of Bartica at Mazaruni Potaro, in British Guyana, on Pouteria sp. (Sapotaceae). It belongs to the ariri species group of the genus Typhlodromips as seta J1 is absent and spermatheca has calyx cupor bell-shaped or saccular. Its biology is totally unknown and this is the first record of that species for French Guiana.
World distribution: Guyana (British Guyana). Specimens examined: A single ♀ collected during this study. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Remarks: the description of this species is very concise, including small illustrations. A complementary and more detailed description is presented, with measurements of our single specimen (in bold) compared to those of the original description (between parenthesis).
Peritreme and peritrematal plate (Fig. 1a) -Reaching the level between insertion of setae j1; peritrematic plate fused with dorsal shield at level of j1.
Remarks: this species is distinguished from other Typhlodromips by the following characteristics: z4, s4, Z4, Z5 and JV5 and macrosetae of all legs knobbed, Z5 slightly longer than Z4, gv3 adjacent to insertion of JV2.
In the latter two species, z4, s4, Z4 and Z5 are not knobbed and gv3 relatively far from the insertion of JV2.
Remarks: morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements fit well the measurement given by De Leon (1967), Denmark and Muma (1989) and Moraes et al. (2000).  Gupta 1986).

Genus Amblyseius largoensis (Muma)
Amblyseius largoensis belongs to the largoensis species group and to the largoensis species subgroup. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and was the most abundant species collected by Moraes et al. (2000) in French Caribbean Islands and an important species in La Réunion Island (Moraes et al. 2012).
Using morphometric analyses of 36 characters, molecular analyses and crossing tests, Navia et al. (2014) studied specimens collected in Brazil, La Réunion Island and Trinidad and Tobago to determine whether A. largoensis populations from different geographic origins belong to the same taxonomic entity. Though differences in the lengths of some setae were observed, molecular analyses and crossing experiments indicated that populations from Indian Ocean and America were conspecific. This is its first record in French Guiana.
World distribution: this species is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
World distribution: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. Specimens examined: two specimens (2 ♀♀) collected during this study. Île du Salut (3 m aasl, lat. 5°17 ′ 01 ″ N, long. 53°58 ′ 02 ″ W), 2 ♀♀ on an unknown species of Melastomataceae, 2/XI/2001. Remarks: this species was described in detail by Ehara (1966) and there is no need for it to be redrawn in this paper. Morphological and morphometric characters and all measurements of our two specimens agree well with measurement given in the literature for specimens from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru (Ehara 1966, Moraes and Mesa 1988, Lofego et al. 2004, Guanilo et al. 2008a, especially for specimens from Brazil (Lofego et al. 2004).

Conclusion
A total of five phytoseiid species, all Amblyseiinae, was collected in this study. However, only six species have so far been reported from French Guiana, namely A. limonicus, A. anacardii, A. largoensis, P. neotropicus, P. ovatus and T. scleroticus.
At least two of these species have been mentioned as biological control agents (BCA): A. largoensis and A. limonicus. In addition ecological interest concerning the determination of the distribution of the phytoseiid mites worldwide, the results of this study also has a pragmatic importance. Given the restrictions imposed by some countries in relation to the transportation of beneficial organisms between different geographic areas for practical use, the determination of the distribution of a species with potential value as biological control agent may allow the selection of local species for that purpose.
French Guiana is the largest French Department, with a territory of comparable size to some European countries. Given its location next to the equator, it is expected that many more phytoseiid species can be found in that region. This large area belongs to Amazonas biome. So, further surveys and investigations are of great potential interest.