Species Composition and Diversity of Mites Inhabiting Pomegranate Orchards at Assiut, Upper Egypt

Abstract

Mites play an important role in the biological cycle of nature, as well as in the agricultural cycles of plants. They are considered to be very important for most plants, especially fruit orchards, which case both, qualitative and quantitative losses, they also cause different types of allergenic reactions among the fruit handles and farmers. A comprehensive survey of mites inhabiting pomegranate orchards at Assiut and its suburbs was conducted in the work herein. During the current work, colonies of the pomegranate false spider mite, Tenuipalpus punicae Pritchard & Baker and the mango spider mite, Oligonychus mangiferus (Rahman & Sapra) were recorded on pomegranate trees at Assiut governorate. The relative abundance of both mite species and their natural enemies was conducted. Based on previous studies, about 24 mite species in nine families were recorded in Egypt. In order to determine species composition of phytophagous and predacious mites on pomegranate trees, samples were taken from leaves, buds and fruits during 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons. The citrus brown mite, Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein); T. punicae and the broad mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks) seemed to be the most common phytophagous mites on pomegranate trees. On the other side, several predatory mite species were also recorded in the present work. Of these, Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot; Euseius scutalis (Athias-Henriot); Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri Scheuten; Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes (Phytoseiidae), and Agistemus exsertus Gonzalez (Stigmaeidae), all were recorded in large numbers, especially on pomegranate leaves of all varieties. While Cheletogenes ornatus (Canestrini & Fanzago) and Cheletomimus bakeri (Ehara) (Cheyletidae) were recorded mostly on leaves and fruits. Quantifying the occurrence of various predacious mite species on pomegranate trees, may be of great importance to reduce the number of phytophagous ones. In separated subsequent studies, the efficacy of these predatory mites can be estimated as one of the biological control agents.