Sex ratio dynamic of the field population of the sugarcane rust mite Abacarus sacchari (Acari: Eriophyidae)

Abstract

Sugarcane contributes to roughly 40-45% of the United States (US) sugar production and Florida accounts for more than 50% of the production or an equivalent of approximately 20% of the total sugar production in the country (Abadam 2022). Therefore, sugarcane is considered one of the most valuable crops in southern Florida. Sugarcane rust mite (SRM), Abacarus sacchari, is one of the pests associated with sugarcane. The mite was first discovered in southern Florida in 1982 and, since then, there have been no further reports on the mite until the summer of 2007 (Beuzelin et al. 2022). The lack of reports could be due to the mite's microscopic size that made it unnoticeable; therefore, the symptoms produced by this mite were misidentified as foliar diseases which also commonly infest the sugarcane (Nuessly et al. 2015).SRM is an eriophyid that is well known to be an arrhenotokous parthenogenetic and haplodiploid. The male is haploid, which develops from unfertilised eggs, while the female is diploid, which develops from fertilised eggs (Skoracka 2008;