Host-plant specificity and specialization in eriophyoid mites and their importance for the use of eriophyoid mites as biocontrol agents of weeds

Abstract

Eriophyoid mites, which are among the smallest plant feeders, are characterized by the intimate relationships they have with their hosts and the restricted range of plants upon which they can reproduce. The knowledge of their true host ranges and mechanisms causing host specificity is fundamental to understanding mite-host interactions, potential mite-host coevolution, and diversity of this group, as well as to apply effective control strategies or to use them as effective biological control agents. The aim of this paper is to review current knowledge on host specificity and specialization in eriophyoid mites, and to point out knowledge gaps and doubts. Using available data on described species and recorded hosts we showed that: (1) 80% of eriophyoids have been reported on only one host species, 95% on one host genus, and 99% on one host family; (2) Diptilomiopidae has the highest proportion of monophagous species and Phytoptidae has the fewest; (3) non-monophagous eriophyoids show the tendency to infest closely related hosts; 4) vagrant eriophyoids have a higher proportion of monophagous species than refuge-seeking and refuge-inducing species; (5) the proportions of monophagous species infesting annual and perennial hosts are similar; however, many species infesting annual hosts have wider host ranges than those infesting perennial hosts; (6) the proportions of species that are monophagous infesting evergreen and deciduous plants are similar; (7) non-monophagous eriophyoid species have wider geographic distribution than monophagous species. Field and laboratory host-specificity tests for several eriophyoid species and their importance for biological control of weeds are described. Testing the actual host range of a given eriophyoid species, searching for ecological data, genetic differentiation analysis, and recognizing factors and mechanisms that contribute to host specificity of eriophyoid mites are suggested as future directions for research.

Phytophagous mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) recorded from Svalbard, including the description of a new species

“…Eriophyoid mites can be very damaging to their host plants (Lindquist and Amrine 1996). Although most eriophyoids are highly hostspecific, numerous eriophyoid species are generalist pests of a variety of crop species (e.g., Aceria tulipae, Aceria tosichella, Abacarus hystrix; Skoracka et al 2010). This, combined with the known ability of many eriophyoids to vector plant diseases (Oldfield and Proeseler 1996), underlines the urgent need to fill gaps in knowledge of phytophagous mite ecology and taxonomy in high Arctic habitats.…”

Morphological support for a clade comprising two vermiform mite lineages: Eriophyoidea (Acariformes) and Nematalycidae (Acariformes)

“…Once Eriophyoidea switched to feeding on plants, their diversification was possibly driven by a symbiotic relationship with plants. Evidence for this is provided by the high levels of host specificity of Eriophyoidea (Skoracka et al 2010). It may even be that Eriophyoidea were already somewhat preadapted for plant feeding while they still lived in the mineral regolith as nematalycids.…”

“…All Eriophyoidea feed on the fluid contents of vascular plants. Most species feed on only one, or a few, plant host species (Skoracka et al 2010), and individual plant species may have more than one associated eriophyoid species. Given that these mites feed on most vascular plants, which comprise approximately 300,000 species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016), the true species number of Eriophyoidea is likely to be many times that of the roughly 5,000 species that have already been described (Amrine & Stasny 1994;Amrine et al 2003).…”

Measuring the host specificity of plant-feeding mites based on field data — a case study of the Aceria species

“…Nevertheless, most associations between eriophyoid mites and their plant hosts remain poorly understood. Most eriophyoid species are commonly regarded as highly specialized mites with narrow host specificity, and only a few species are known as generalists with wide host ranges (Oldfield 1996;Skoracka et al 2010). However, most information about the host ranges of eriophyoid mites was based on single sampling occasions without quantitative data.…”