Euseius scutalis (Athias-Henriot)
Taxonomic placing: Acari, Mesostigmata, Phytoseiidae.
Morphology: The reticulated dorsum is about 0.3 mm long, with 17 pairs of nude, subequal setae (except the longer posterior pair) plus two pairs of lateral setae. A single macroseta present on leg IV. The sternal plate with three pairs of setae, and four pairs of preanal setae.
Life history: The optimal conditions for this mite are at around 25°C. At this temperature each female produced about 40 eggs, a generation required about a fortnight and longevity was 3-4 weeks. Euseius scutalis feeds on many mites, and also on and develop on moth eggs, diaspidid crawlers, some thrips and pollen (which can be used for its mass-production).
Economic importance: An important predator of several major mite and whitefly pests, whose populations it can control. The pests include the mites Eutetranychus orientalis., Oligonychus afrasiaticus, Panonychus citri, Panonychus ulmi, Phyllocoptruta oleivora and Tetranychus urticae. The release of E. scutalis on citrus seedlings infested by P. citri in a greenhouse, at 1:10 predator: pest ratios, resulted in good control within one week in Turkey. Releasing 50 E. scutalis/ tree reduced a population of Brevipalpus californicus by 90% in Egypt. The whitefly pest prey includes Bemisia tabaci and Parabemisia myricae.
References
Abbassy, M.R., Hendy, H.H., Mowafi, M.H. and Nawar, M.A. 2012. Biology of Euseius scutalis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) on Tetranychus urticae and Panonychus ulmi (Acari: Tetranychidae) at different temperatures. Acarines 6: 15-19.
El-Halawany, M.E., Abdel-Samed, M.A. and Ibrahim, G.A. 1993. Evaluating the efficiency of different levels of Euseius scutalis (Athias Henriot) released for the control of Brevipalpus californicus (Banks) on Baladi oranges. Menofiya Journal of Agricultural Research 18: 2697-2707.
Al-Shammery, K.A. 2010. Different biological aspects of the predaceous mite Euseius scutalis (Acari: Gamasida: Phytoseiidae) and the effects due to feeding on three tetranychid mite species in Hail, Saudi Arabia. Asian Journal of Biological Sciences 3: 77-84.
Kasap, I. and Şekeroğlu, E. 2004. Life history of Euseius scutalis feeding on citrus red mite Panonychus citri at various temperatures. BioControl 49: 645-654.
Maoz, Y. (and 6 co-authors). 2014. Efficacy of indigenous predatory mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) against the citrus rust mite Phyllocoptruta oleivora (Acari: Eriophyidae): augmentation and conservation biological control in Israeli citrus orchards. Experimental and Applied Acarology 63: 295-312.
Swirski, E. and Amitai, S. 1997. Annotated list of phytoseiid mites (Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae) in Israel. Israel Journal of Entomology 31: 21-46.
Tanigoshi, L.K., Bahdousheh, M., Babcock, J.M. and Sawaqed, R. 1990. Euseius scutalis(Athias-Henriot) a predator of Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein) in Jordan: toxicity of some acaricides to E. orientalis. Arab Journal of Plant Protection 8: 114-120.
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