Notes on phytophagous and predatory mites of medicinal plants of Kolkata

Abstract

Male genitalia: Uncus with slightly dilated at distal end, setose with a group of setae having club-shaped ends; tuba analis longer than uncus; subscaphium curved and well sclerotized; vinculum moderate, well sclerotized; saccus U-shaped and broad; valva with costa and sacculus very well differentiated, latter with a sclerotized ridge; harpe marked by a small, weakly curved projection; juxta like an inverted Y-shaped structure; aedeagus short and cylindrical, narrow in middle; vesica without any well defined armature but a well sclerotized curved patch at distal end represents cornutus.Female genitalia: Corpus bursae oblong, with a slight constriction in outer wall in middle; ductus bursae moderately long, rounded distally; with a collar-like thickening at distal end; anterior apophyses with triangular expansions near bases; posterior apophyses short and narrow; ovipositor with rounded and well defined lobes, each lobe densely setose with varying sizes of setae.Wing Expanse (Half): Male -13mm; Female -15mm. DISCUSSIONThe external male genitalic features like uncus, saccus, juxta and female genitalic feature like absence of signum, the shape of ductus bursae and apophyses clearly indicate the congeneric nature of the species ambionalis (Felder and Rogenhofer) with the type species testulalis Geyer. The reporting of present species from Bander-Dewa locality is its first record from Arunachal Pradesh.

Prostigmata (Acari: Trombidiformes) as Biological Control Agents

“…Cunaxids have also been reported, at the specifi c level, from other ecosystems by different authors, namely from orchards (Muma 1960 ;Den Heyer and Ryke 1970 ;Forest et al 1982 ;Mallikarjunappa and Nageshchandra 1990 ;Grout and Ueckermann 1999 ), stored food (Corpuz-Raros et al 1988 ), ornamentals (Tagore and Putatunda 2003 ) and medicinal plants (Lahiri et al 2004 ). Sepasgosarian ( 1984 ) listed 110 papers on general biological aspects of this group, including few studies on life cycle.…”

<strong>Diversity of mites (Acari) on medicinal and aromatic plants in India*</strong>

“…Information regarding diversity of mites from medicinal and aromatic plants was also obtained by a search of the published literature. The following papers were consulted: Lal & Mukherjee (1977), Ghosh & Gupta (2003), Ghosh (2004), Lahiri et al (2004), and Gupta et al (2005). All together, about 300 plant species were considered in the surveys conducted in this study and in those corresponding to previous studies.…”

“…Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to the study of actual or potential pests and of the predatory mites associated with them, which could maintain them under adequate control. In India, some of the most important works in this regard were reported by Lal & Mukherjee (1977), Ghosh & Gupta (2003), Ghosh (2004), Lahiri et al (2004) and Gupta et al (2005).…”

A review of Cunaxidae (Acariformes, Trombidiformes): Histories and diagnoses of subfamilies and genera, keys to world species, and some new locality records

“…Cunaxids occur in most terrestrial habitats, including soil and leaf litter (Den Heyer 1977a, Luxton 1982; Javan et al 2012); moss and lichen (Sepasgosarian 1984, Tseng 1980); on vegetation (Miller 1925, Swift and Goff 2001, Ferla and Moraes 2002) including coniferous trees (Lehman 1982), tropical trees (Castro and Moraes 2007) including guava trees (Mallikarjunappa and Nageshchandra 1990), Ferla and Moraes 2002), mango trees (Mohamed et al 2014), coconut trees (Mariau and Biggins 2001; da Silva et al 2014), and rubber trees (Hernandes and Feres 2006), ornamental plants (Tagore and Putatunda 2003), invasive weeds (Walter 1999), agricultural plants such as citrus trees (Muma 1960, Olivier 1968, Ramsey et al 1972a, Soliman and Mahfood 1978, Vacante and Nucifora 1986, Quilici et al 1997, Grout and Ueckermann 1999, Ferla and Moraes 2002, Fadamiro et al 2009), deciduous fruit trees (Nesbitt 1946, Garman 1948, Lord 1949, Ramsey et al 1972b, Quilici et al 1997, Ferla and Moraes 1998, Ferla and Moraes 2002; Shakhsi Zare et al 2012), cotton (Kuznetzov and Sizova 1978), strawberries (Ferla et al 2007), grape vineyards (Schruft 1971, Jubb et al 1985, Molnar 1997), alfalfa fields (Badieritakis et al 2014), and plants in urban settings (Lahiri et al 2004); vertebrate nests (Garman 1948, Gupta and Chattopadhyay 1978, Gupta and Paul 1985, Estebanes-Gonzales 1997); caves (Cooreman 1954, Turk 1972, Zacharda 1978); animal debris (Corpuz Raros et al 1988, Taha et al 1988); tree holes (Atyeo 1958, Lin and Zhang 2002); house dust (Oliveria and Daemon 2003); and stored food products (Huges 1976, Tseng 1980, Fan 1992). Individual species, however, are thought to be restricted to a particular habitat.…”

“…All cunaxids are thought to be opportunistic predators, though an undescribed Rubroscirus was observed to drink drops of honeydew in addition to feeding on live prey ( Walter and Proctor 1999 ). Cunaxids have been reported to feed on active prey such as Collembola ( Sellnick 1926 , Heryford 1965 ), bark lice ( Zaher et al 1975a ), and thrips ( Milne 1977 ), and relatively inactive prey such as scales ( Ewing and Webster 1912 , Gerson 1971 ), nematodes ( Taha et al 1988 , Walter and Kaplan1991 ), phytophagous mites ( Meyer and Ryke 1959 , Zaher et al 1975a , Den Heyer and Ryke 1970 , Taha et al 1988 , Smiley 1992 , Sathiamma 1995 , Arbabi and Singh 2000 , Ferla 2001 , Lahiri et al 2004 , Castro and Moraes 2010 ), and paratydeid mites (pers. obs.).…”