Performance of eighteen tetranychid mite species (Acari: Tetranychidae) on borage and strawberry

Abstract

Borage (Borago officinalis L.) is anticipated as a banker plant in strawberry greenhouses to adopt integrated aphid management, because borage has a stimulatory influence on parasitoid wasps attacking aphids. However, before actually using borage, we had to answer the following question: will borage become a hotbed for spider mites? To investigate this, host plant suitability and acceptance by 18 tetranychid mite species were tested on borage and strawberry leaves. The mites were two Panonychus species, two Eotetranychus species and 14 Tetranychus species, including the green and red forms of T. urticae that were counted as separate species. Borage appeared an unsuitable host, because females of all 18 mite species did not lay eggs, females of most species could not survive for more than 5 days, and larvae of all 18 mite species did not develop to nymphal stages on borage. Conversely, strawberry was a suitable host for 13 of the 18 spider mite species: females laid eggs and about 90% of larvae successfully reached adulthood. Thus, these13 species have the potential to become pests of strawberry. Offering female spider mites the choice between interconnected borage and strawberry leaf discs, (1) most females moved from borage to strawberry except for the two Panonychus species and E. asiaticus, and (2) few females moved from strawberry to either borage or strawberry. Consequently, it is highly unlikely that borage will become a hotbed for any of the spider mite species.

Resistance of New Strawberry Genotypes to the Two-Spotted Spider Mite (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…Attacked leaves are initially discolored and may later dry and become totally covered with webbing, leading to up to 80% yield reduction and lower fruit quality (Park & Lee, 2005;Fraulo, Mcsorley, & Liburd, 2008). the two-spotted spider mite (Lourenção, Moraes, Passos, Ambrosano, & Silva, 2000;El-Shafei & Gotoh, 2010;Afifi, El-Laithy, Shehata, & El-Saiedy, 2010;Monteiro, Kuhn, Mogor, & Silva, 2014;González-Domínguez et al, 2015). Varietal resistance can be evaluated through the evaluation of factors such as mite behavior, level of inflicted plant injury (Petrova, Cudare, Steinite, & Laugale, 2000;Wold & Hutchison, 2003), developmental time, survivorship, fecundity, oviposition rate and life table parameters (Gugole Ottaviano, Sánchez, Roggiero, & Greco, 2013;González-Domínguez et al, 2015).…”

Performance of Tetranychus urticae and Neoseiulus californicus on strawberry cultivars and assessment of the effect of glandular trichomes

“…Twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, is highly polyphagous (Rodríguez and Rodríguez 1987;Yano et al 1998) and exhibits differential performance when feeding on various plant species (Greco et al 2006;El-Shafei and Gotoh 2010) or cultivars of the same crop (Krips et al 1998;Agrawal 2000;Greco and Sánchez 2003). Strawberry, Fragaria 9 ananassa Duchesne, is a preferred host for T. urticae (Klingen and Westrum 2007) and therefore is a common pest affecting commercial strawberry crops in several countries.…”

Manejo integrado de la plaga Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae) en cultivos de frutilla del Cinturón Hortícola Platense

“…Las "arañuelas de las dos manchas" son altamente polífagas (Rodríguez & Rodríguez, 1987;Yano et al, 1998) pero presentan un desempeño diferencial en las especies vegetales de las que se alimentan (Gotoh, 2003;Greco et al, 2005;El-Shafei & Gotoh, 2010), incluso entre variedades de un mismo cultivo (Krips et al, 1998;Agrawal, 2000).…”

“…La resistencia incluye características mecánicas y químicas que reducen el desempeño del herbívoro (antibiosis) o su preferencia (antixenosis) (Karban & Myers, 1989;Meaguer, 1994;Stout & Davis, 2009;El-Shafei et al, 2010). Las plantas pueden expresar resistencia a través de defensas constitutivas o inducidas.…”

“…El cultivo de frutilla es uno de los preferidos por T. urticae (Klingen & Westrum, 2007) y presenta numerosas variedades con diferentes grados de susceptibilidad o de resistencia frente al ataque de este herbívoro y otras especies emparentadas (García-Ferrer et al, 1993;Wold & Hutchinson, 2003;El-Shafei & Gotoh, 2010). Varias características de la historia de vida de un herbívoro, además de la supervivencia, tales como el tiempo de desarrollo y la fecundidad de las hembras son buenos indicadores de lo propicio que es un alimento para su crecimiento (Agrawal, 2000;Krips et al, 1998).…”