Spider mites of sugarcane in Australia: a review of grass‐feeding Oligonychus Berlese (Acari: Prostigmata: Tetranychidae)

Abstract

In many areas of the world, spider mites are significant pests of sugarcane. Australia is currently fortunate in lacking the most destructive species, and usually suffers only sporadic damage. Herein, we provide a key to the genera of spider mites associated with sugarcane, review the most significant genus, Oligonychus Berlese, and provide a key to the species of grass-feeding Oligonychus in the Australasian region. The species O. araneum Davis, O. digitatus Davis, O. grypus Baker and Pritchard, O. orthius Rimando, and O. oryzae (Hirst) are redescribed, while the Australian O. zanclopes sp. n. Beard and Walter from sugarcane and rice, O. turbelli sp. n. Beard and Walter, O. ephamnus sp. n. Beard and Walter and O. festucolus sp. n. Beard and Walter from other grasses, are newly described. Previous records of O. grypus in Australia appear to be misidentifications of what is described here as the new species O. zanclopes .

Identification of exotic pest and Australian native and naturalised species of Tetranychus (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…The answer proved simple: Davis (1968b) Mites in the genus Oligonychus are common pests of grasses, and the Australian grass-feeding species were revised by Beard et al (2003).…”

First additions and corrections to the World Catalogue of the Spider Mite Family (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…Oligonvchus zanclopes Beard and Walter, 2003: 74. New species described from Australia (Queensland) on sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum (Poaceae) by Beard et al (2003).…”

“…Other revisions or significant additions also came to light, such as the papers by Zhang et al (2000b) on the genus Stylophoronvchus Prasad, Zhang and Martin (2001) on the genus Schizotetranychus Tr~igSrdh and related mites in New Zealand, by Flechtmann and Knihinicki (2002) on the genus Tetranychus Dufour and by Beard et al (2003) on the species belonging to the genus Oligonvchus Berlese and associated with Poaceae in the Australasian region.…”

A new species of spider mite, Oligonychus palus sp. nov. (Prostigmata: Tetranychidae), from tropical Australia

“…(1998) listed 1189 known species in the world, 49 of which were recorded from Australia. Since these data were collected, further species have been described worldwide, including several from Australia (Knihinicki & Flechtmann 1999; Flechtmann & Knihinicki 2002; Beard et al . 2003); however, despite their agricultural importance the Tetranychidae remain poorly known in Australia and many species remain to be discovered.…”

“…Many of the Oligonychus recorded from banana are grass‐feeding specialists (i.e. feed mainly of species of Poaceae), such as O. gramineus (McGregor), O. indicus (Hirst), O. grypus Baker & Pritchard, O. orthius Rimando, O. oryzae (Hirst), O. velascoi Rimando, O. zeae (McGregor), none of which have been recorded in Australia (Beard et al . 2003).…”