Biology of Schizotetranychus nanjingensis (Acari: Tetranychidae) with reference to effects of temperature on and importance of nests to its survival and development

Causes of mite pest outbreaks in bamboo forests in Fujian, China: analyses of mite damage in monoculture versus polyculture stands

“…Therefore economic injury occurred mostly in monoculture forests. These observations support our hypothesis that monoculture is one of the main cause of mite outbreaks in Fujian (Zhang et al 1999(Zhang et al , 2000. We also noted that forests at high altitudes had lower mite damage than those at lower altitudes (Fig.…”

“…The two most likely explanations for the patterns are: (1) the movement behaviour of the herbivore in relation to plant diversity and (2) the effect of relatively more natural enemies in polyculture (Risch et al 1983). Monoculture forests facilitate the dispersal of phytophagous mites, which would be otherwise slowed down by unsuitable non-host plants surrounding bamboo plants in a polyculture forest (Zhang et al 1999(Zhang et al , 2000. Only controlled experiments can corroborate this hypothesis.…”

“…Only controlled experiments can corroborate this hypothesis. Alternatively, it may be hypothesized that monoculture reduces the abundance of natural enemies of plant mites by reducing alternative habitat/food for them, which may also contribute to the outbreaks of mites (Zhang et al 1999(Zhang et al , 2000. We noted that predatory mites were more numerous in polyculture forests than monoculture forests in 5 of the 6 sites examined (2-10 times and at site F 1.7 vs 0).…”

“…It is therefore hypothesized (Zhang et al 1999(Zhang et al , 2000 that pure, dense monoculture bamboo stands facilitate the rapid growth and dispersal of these mites, which would be otherwise slowed down by unsuitable non-host plants surrounding bamboo plants in a polyculture forest. It is also hypothesized (Zhang et al 1999(Zhang et al , 2000 that monoculture reduces the abundance of natural enemies of phytophagous mites by reducing alternative habitats and food for them, which indirectly could also contribute to the outbreaks of phytophagous mites on bamboo in Fujian. In this paper, we test these hypotheses by examining the damage that phytophagous mites caused to bamboo leaves and the densities of both phytophagous mites and predatory mites in ten pairs of monoculture versus polyculture forests at six different locations in Fujian.…”

Responses to stimuli from Schizotetranychus nanjingensis on bamboo leaves by two predatory mite species (Acari: Tetranychidae, Phytoseiidae)

“…Females of S. nanjingensis construct web-nests with a very dense webbing roof on the underside of bamboo leaves. The web-nest may function as a shelter in which all spider mites live and feed on leaf tissue (Zhang et al 1999a). The intact webbing of S. nanjingensis is also effective in preventing the invasion by non-specialist predators such as A. longispinosus (Zhang et al 1999c) and A. cucumeris (Zhang et al 2000b), although it could not prevent the attacks of the specialized predator of S. nanjingensis, T. bambusae Ehara, which is adapted to the web-nests of S nanjingensis (Y.-X.…”