Abstract
The Cerrado biome suffers constant impacts mainly due to agricultural activities, which can reduce food resources and habitats for many plant-dwelling mites, including important species to agriculture, such as predators. However, the mite fauna from this biome are still poorly known. Here, we present a checklist of mite species on Astronium fraxinifolium Schott, a Brazilian plant species threatened with extinction, from the Cerrado remnants associated with nickel mining areas, in the Niquelândia municipality, Brazil. Moreover, we performed cumulative (Mao Tau) and estimated (Jackknife 1) species accumulation curves in order to test for an effect of sampling effort and to estimate the potential number of species sheltered by the studied Cerrado remnants, and NMDS and ANOSIM analyses to test for similarity in mite species composition among samples. We sampled five A. fraxinifolium plants in each of six Cerrado remnants. Among these, three remnants were preserved (PR) and three were experiencing a secondary regeneration process (SR). Both PR and SR remnants were close to nickel mining areas. We recorded 1,562 mites including 17 species from 12 genera and eight families. Tetranychidae was the most diverse family, followed by Phytoseiidae and Tenuipalpidae. The most abundant species were phytophagous mites, namely Brevipalpus sp.1, Oligonychus sp., Eotetranychus sp.1, and the predator Agistemus brasiliensis Matioli, Ueckermann & Oliveira. Regarding feeding behavior, phytophagous mites were the most abundant and diverse on A. fraxinifolium. Both species accumulation curves (Mao Tau) for PR and SR remnants trended towards an asymptote, while estimated curves (Jackknife 1) proved to be similar to accumulation curves (Mao Tau). These results indicate that sampling was sufficient to assess mite assemblages using the methods applied in this study. No differences in mite species composition were observed between PR and SR areas. This paper is a pioneer report of mite assemblages on A. fraxinifolium. Furthermore, we report here two genera and one species recorded for the first time in the Cerrado biome. Our checklist can contribute to bridging the knowledge gap on the occurrence of plant mite species in Brazilian natural vegetation remnants.
Highlights
Brazilian Savannah, referred as Cerrado, is the second largest Brazilian biome in range
We recorded 1,562 mites from 17 species in 12 genus and eight families on A. fraxinifolium plants from Cerrado remnants belonging to Anglo-American Enterprise
Three individuals from two species had unknown behavior. Both accumulation curves (Mao Tau) determined for PR and secondary regeneration process (SR) remnants tend to an asymptote, indicating that enough sample efforts to assess mite assemblage on A. fraxinifolium were performed
Summary
Brazilian Savannah, referred as Cerrado, is the second largest Brazilian biome in range. Some investigations suggest Cerrado remnants as important shelters in keeping natural enemies of pests, such as predatory mites and parasitoid insects, and the benefit in conserving natural vegetation in crop-yielding areas for improving natural pest control (Demite and Feres 2008, 2007a, b, 2005, Demite et al 2009, Giannetti et al 2011, Harterreiten-Souza et al 2014, Rezende et al 2014). The importance of Cerrado remnants in keeping natural enemies was verified by Rezende et al (2014) According to these authors, all phytoseiid mites found in soybean plants were recorded in Cerrado remnants suggesting a possible dispersion of these mites from natural vegetation to crops. We expected that areas previously exploited for mining present distinct species composition relative to more conserved remnants
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