Interactions between the citrus bud mite Aceria sheldoni (Acari: Eriophyidae) and the lemon host tree in a Mediterranean area

V Vacante,C.P Bonsignore

doi:10.1051/acarologia/20162235

Abstract

This study evaluated the relation between the citrus bud mite [Aceria sheldoni (Ewing)] and lemon trees [(Citrus limon (L.) Burm] in two groves, over two seasons in Reggio Calabria (Italy). Random samples of shoots were taken every 10 days and the number of buds, blossoms, fruits, and leaves present on each shoot were counted. Blossoms and fruits were classified as healthy or deformed and the immature and adults stages of the citrus bud mite and associated predatory mites were counted. Observational data indicated that the citrus bud mite does not have a negative influence on the lemon harvest and that the interaction between its populations and the host plant is a mutual symbiosis in which mite populations use the buds as a resource and repay the host plant by positively regulating its productive system. In both lemon groves, three stigmaeid mites [Zetzellia mali (Ewing), Z. graeciana Gonzalez and Agistemus collyerae Gonzalez] were also collected and their density was compared with that of the A. sheldoni. Our study highlights the complexity of relations of the citrus bud mite and lemon trees, and stresses the importance of carefully determining the real influence of the citrus bud mite on host plant harvests.

Highlights

The citrus bud mite (CBM), Aceria sheldoni (Ewing), commonly infests lemon, Citrus limon (L.) Burm., and, in some regions of the world, sweet orange Citrus sinensis Osbeck
The CBM were consistently found in the buds and on the fruits (Fig. 1), as well as Acarologia 56(2): 167–174 (2016)
The highest density of A. sheldoni in buds and on fruits occurred during vegetative standstill

Summary

Introduction

The citrus bud mite (CBM), Aceria sheldoni (Ewing), commonly infests lemon, Citrus limon (L.) Burm., and, in some regions of the world, sweet orange Citrus sinensis Osbeck The mite lives and reproduces inside the buds, where it feeds on embryonic tissue and on the growing or mature fruits. Mite infestations on flowering and wood buds result in morphological alterations of the shoots, leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruits (Boyce http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/ ISSN 0044-586-X (print). ISSN 2107-7207 (electronic) and Korsmeier, 1941; Ebeling, 1959; Jeppson et al, 1975). In the tissue of infested buds, there is an increase in phenol and a simultaneous decrease in auxin activity, with alterations in the activity of these compounds as well as that of ribonuclease (RNAase; Ishaaya and Sternlicht, 1969; Ishaaya and Sternlicht, 1971). The increase in abscission of blossoms and fruits is likely to depend on a decrease in auxin activity and other biochemical anomalies in infested axil-

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