Susceptibility of seven tetranychids to the nonoccluded virus of the citrus red mite and the correlation of the carmine spider mite as a vector

Abstract

When the European red mite, Panonychus ulni; the avocado brown mite, Oligonychus punicae; the twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae; the carmine spider mite, T. cinnabarinus; the Pacific spider mite, T. pacificus; the sixpotted mite, Eotetranychus sexmaculatus; and T. evansi were exposed to the nonoccluded virus of the citrus red mite, Panonychus citri, either by feeding on contaminated citrus leaves or by spraying with aqueous suspensions of triturated diseased mites, only a few carmine spider mites developed the crystals characteristic of the disease. However, the carmine spider mite was a vector of the virus: when citrus red mites were transferred to leaf cages previously inhabited by carmine mites from contaminated cages, they became diseased; also, aqueous suspensions of triturated carmine mites that had been sprayed with virus inoculum from citrus red mites passed the disease to citrus red mites.