Ricoseius loxocheles (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is not a predator of false spider mite on coffee crops: What does it eat?

Abstract

Ricoseius loxocheles (De Leon) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is often found in coffee crops and is known to feed on coffee leaf rust, Hemileia vastatrix Berkeley and Broome (Uredinales). As the occurrence of coffee leaf rust is limited primarily to the rainy season, the mite may use other food sources to survive during the periods of low pathogen prevalence. It is well known that phytoseiid mites can survive on a variety of food sources, such as herbivorous mites, fungi and pollen. We evaluated the ability of R. loxocheles to survive and reproduce on a diet of Brevipalpus phoenicis Geijskes (Acari: Tenuipalpidae), cattail pollen (Typha spp.), clover rust (Puccinia oxalidis), bee pollen (Santa Bárbara dehydrated pollen, Santa Bárbara, MG, Brazil) and coffee leaf rust. Ricoseius loxocheles did not survive or reproduce on any B. phoenicis stages tested (egg, larva, adult). The survival and oviposition of R. loxocheles were directly affected by the presence of coffee rust urediniospores, but not by the presence of the prey. Survival and oviposition of the phytoseiid were similar when fed cattail pollen, clover rust and coffee leaf rust but was lower when fed bee pollen. Our results show that R. loxocheles is not a predator of B. phoenicis but it is able to utilize other resources besides coffee leaf rust.

The coffee leaf rust pandemic: An ever‐present danger to coffee production

“…Promising results and potential as BCAs have been shown by the mite Ricoseius loxocheles and gastropod Bradybaena similaris (Hajian‐Forooshani et al., 2020; Oliveira et al., 2014; Vacacela Ajila et al., 2018). Both were found to feed on the spores of H .…”

Alternative plant protection strategies for tomorrow's coffee

“…Another predator is the mite Ricoseius loxocheles , which exhibits a diverse diet in which H . vastatrix uredinospores feature as seasonal food choice in the coffee field (Ajila et al, 2018; Oliveira et al, 2014). Other field observations showed yellow excrement from invasive gastropods such as Bradybaena similaris on CLR‐infected leaves in Puerto Rico, thus alluding to yet another dietary shift towards H .…”

“…When the densities of the two control agents per CLR lesion were higher, a more significant suppression of the CLR disease was observed at the country level (i.e., Puerto Rico vs. Mexico; Hajian-Forooshani et al, 2016). Another predator is the mite Ricoseius loxocheles, which exhibits a diverse diet in which H. vastatrix uredinospores feature as seasonal food choice in the coffee field (Ajila et al, 2018;Oliveira et al, 2014) et al, 2020). Finally, the naturally derived polymer chitosan has recently been found to induce defence responses in C. arabica when applied as a foliar spray and then challenged with H. vastatrix spores a week later (López-Velázquez et al, 2021).…”

Puccinia oxalidis Dietel & Ellis (1895): first report controlling oxalis latifolia kunth (Oxalidaceae) in systems of direct planting

“…Oxalis latifolia Kunth, originally from Mexico (Burger, 1991), a perennial plant with slow growth (Everard et al, 2018) and leaves in long petioles composed of three broad leaflets, is commonly known as "clover" or "sorrel" with asexual reproduction (bulbs). This species has been described as a weed in agricultural crops (Shrestha et al, 2019) and as a host of different rust-causing Puccinia species (Vacacela Ajila et al, 2018).…”