distribution of eriophyoid mites (acari: eriophyoidea) on coniferous trees
TRANSCRIPT
Distribution of eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea)on coniferous trees
Mariusz Lewandowski Æ Marcin Kozak
Received: 25 October 2007 / Accepted: 5 February 2008 / Published online: 21 February 2008� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract The aim of the paper was to determine the infestation parameters and species
composition of eriophyoid mites for different parts of Norway spruce and Scots pine as
well as for different age groups of the trees. The observations on the occurrence of the
mites were conducted in 2004 and 2005 in 4 locations distributed in various regions of
Poland, accounting for 11 environments (location x year). Three plant age groups were
studied: (1) adult trees: 40–60 years old, additionally divided into three levels: top, middle
and bottom; (2) young trees: 6–10 years old; and (3) seedlings: 2–3 years old. The same
number of species (five) occurred on each coniferous tree, but only one, the rarest, was
common on both tree species. Out of 500 samples for each species, mites were found on
279 pine (55.8%) and 252 spruce samples (50.2%). No tendency for the mites to choose
any particular level on Scots pine and Norway spruce was observed. In addition, no
tendency for the mites to choose trees from any of the age groups was observed for both
Scots pine and Norway spruce, in the latter case the result obtained also for mite species
subdivided into vagrant and refuge-seeking ones. Final conclusions were that in case of
adult trees samples can be taken from the bottom part of a tree; however, sampling from
young trees growing among adult trees may be seen as the most efficient sampling method.
Keywords Eriophyoidea � Pinaceae � Spruce � Pine � Vertical distribution
Introduction
Phytophagous arthropods can specialize not only with respect to plant taxa they feed upon
but also to the particular part of plants. This is especially encountered in groups where size
M. Lewandowski (&)Department of Applied Entomology, Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture,Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Polande-mail: [email protected]
M. KozakDepartment of Biometry and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw Universityof Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
123
Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99DOI 10.1007/s10493-008-9135-0
and mobility is limited, such as mites (Krantz and Lindquist 1979). One of the major
groups of phytophagous mites is the superfamily Eriophyoidea, which includes many
species that can cause a direct damage to their host plants and lead to the production of a
variety of galls or other abnormalities and distortions, such as erinea, leaf deformation,
discoloration and russeting (Westphal and Manson 1996). Some eriophyoid mites may
transmit viruses (Oldfield and Proeseler 1996).
Eriophyoid mites are characterized by considerable host specificity. Their active
movement is rather low; within a host they disperse by crawling whereas long distance
movements between plants are possible passively by wind currents or phoresy (Sabelis and
Bruin 1996).
Limited migration capacity of these mites can lead to their uneven distribution within
different plant parts, especially on large perennials, such as coniferous trees. On the other
hand, owing to their perennial nature, coniferous trees can create stable microhabitats for
these small arthropods (Boczek and Shevchenko 1996), facilitating a progressive infes-
tation of the entire tree. Information on eriophyoids’ distribution on coniferous plants and
their possible preference to the age or part of a plant is very limited. Sparse information
available show that eriophyoid mites prefer young tissues of these plants (Boczek and
Shevchenko 1996), and suggests the infestation only of the external shoots of a tree crown.
However, little is known about the vertical distribution of eriophyoids within tree crowns.
In the case of annual plants a tendency for eriophyoid mites to inhabit top plant parts has
been shown. Such preference can be attributed to young tissues, present in top parts of
plants and constituting the best food source (Gibson 1974), as well as to better conditions
for starting the migration (Gibson and Painter 1957; Nault and Styer 1969). In the case of
grass-inhabiting Abacarus hystrix (Nalepa) a greater number of specimens on top leaves
were observed in spring and early summer than on low leaves (Nault and Styer 1969;
Skoracka et al. 2003). A study concerning the distribution of two species of eriophyoid
mites on Cupressus sempervirens L. showed preferences to the top level of plants crown
only in the case of bud species; free living mites were distributed evenly (Castagnoli and
Simoni 2000). The preferences of vagrant eriophyoids to the upper part of plant were
observed on tea shrubs, on which mostly top and middle parts of the plant were infested
(Muraleedharan et al. 1988). Distribution of eriophyoid mite galls on tree crown levels
have been studied in alder (Vuorisalo et al. 1989) and green ash (Wawrzynski and Ascerno
1989), but the results of their studies were opposite, the former showing the mite galls
preference for lower while the latter for upper parts of tree crown. On the other hand, gall-
producing mites Aculus tetanothrix (Nalepa), inhabiting willows, produced smaller number
of galls on the outer than inner leaves of the shoots (Kuczynski and Skoracka 2005).
Simmilar trend was observed on gapevine infested by Calepitrimerus vitis (Nalepa) (de
Lillo et al. 2005).
Presently about 170 eriophyoid species associated with coniferous plants are known,
more than 100 of which have been found on Pinaceae (de Lillo and Amrine 2005,
unpublished data). These eriophyoid mites inhabit various plant parts, from needles and
shoots through buds, inflorescences, fruit, and scales at the base of shoots up to shoot galls.
Based on the literature it is difficult to conclude on the distribution of eriophyoid mites on
coniferous plants, which offer the habitat completely different from those offered by
deciduous trees and shrubs.
A wide diversity of eriophyoids, their different life history as well as a large size of
coniferous trees make the determination of an efficient sampling method difficult. The aim
of the present study was to determine the infestation parameters and species composition of
eriophyoid mites in relation to different (a) parts of plants and (b) age groups of Scotch
90 Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99
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pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.). These coniferous
species were chosen for the study since they are commonly used both in forestry and as
ornamental trees in gardens in Poland.
Materials and methods
Observations on the occurrence of eriophyoid mites were conducted from June to Sep-
tember in 2004 and 2005 on Polish native conifers, Norway spruce and Scots pine. The
study was based on the material collected from the following locations distributed in
different regions of the country: shoots of Norway spruce were taken from Koszarawa
Bystra near _Zywiec (Slaskie Province, 49�400 N, 19�240 E) and Lutocin near Sierpc
(Mazowieckie Province, 52�590 N, 19�460 E), whereas shoots of Scots pine from Kuszewo
near Czaplinek (Zachodniopomorskie Province, 53�370 N, 16�170 E), Lutocin near Sierpc
(Mazowieckie Province, 52�590 N, 19�460 E), and Urwitałt near Mikołajki (Warminsko-
Mazurskie Province, 53�480 N, 21�380 E); see Table 1 for sampling dates. Due to workload
connected with the sampling we were not able to collect the samples from the locations at
the same time, for which reason in both years the samples were collected during summer in
order to minimize the seasonal effect on the number of mites. For each plant species 10
stands were examined.
Three plant age groups were studied: (1) adult trees (usually about 40–60 years old); (2)
young trees (usually about 6–10 years old); and (3) seedlings (usually about 2–3 years
old). Additionally, crowns of adult trees were visually divided into three levels: top, middle
and bottom. Ten samples were taken from each level of an adult tree and from a whole
young tree. Stands for sampling were selected in the middle of a forest consisting of
randomly selected trees of all these age groups. Each stand was represented by 1 adult tree,
1 young tree and 10 seedlings. A single sample consisted of a randomly collected 15-cm
shoot. For seedlings, an entire plant comprised a sample.
Mites that occurred on needles, twigs, buds and under scales at the base of a current
year’s shoots were counted and collected. For pine additionally 10 current-year sheaths of
needles were collected. Each sample was examined under the stereo-microscope. Mites
were mounted in modified Berlese medium (Amrine and Manson 1996) and identified to
species.
To show differences in the lifestyle of mites in relation to the host plant, the following
definitions were adapted after Sabelis and Bruin (1996): vagrant - species living freely on a
plant surface, and refuge-seeking - species occurring in shelters on a plant, e.g. buds and
under sheaths.
Statistical analysis
The following parameters were used to describe a degree of eriophyoid mites’ infestation
(Bush et al. 1997):
(1) Prevalence, expressed in percentage values, is interpreted as the probability of finding
a mite on a randomly selected sample. Prevalence for trees (Pt)—the number of trees
infested relative to the number of trees examined. Prevalence for samples (Ps)—the
number of samples infested relative to the number of samples examined.
Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99 91
123
(2) Intensity (I)—the number of mites relative to the number of samples infested.
Expressed as number of individuals (mites) per unit space (sample), it is interpreted
as the population density in occupied habitat patches.
(3) Density (D)—the number of mites relative to the number of samples checked. This
measure has the same dimension as intensity, but measures the population density
across all (theoretically) available habitat patches. Density can be considered as the
product (or interaction) of prevalence and intensity.
Confidence intervals for prevalence were calculated using the formula for an estimator of
probability of success in a binomial distribution, the distribution that this measure follows.
Confidence intervals for intensity and density were computed using the bootstrap-T method (Efron
and Tibshirani 1993) using bootstrap package of R language (R Development Core Team 2006).
To study the vertical distribution of eriophyoid mites on crown levels of adult trees of a
particular tree species, the following transformation was applied:
Zij ¼ Xij
X3
i¼1
Xij
!�1
;
Table 1 Occurrence of eriophyoid species on pinaceous trees in the localities of study
Eriophyoid species Microhabitats Locality, date of sampling
Picea abies
Calepitrimerus lutocinusLewandowski, 2006
Vagrant on needles and twigs Lutocin, 25.09.2004; 30.07.2005;27.08.2005; 23.09.2005
Nalepella shevtchenkoiBoczek, 1969
Vagrant on needles and twigs Koszarawa, 25.08.2004
Lutocin, 25.09.2004; 23.09.2005
Phyllocoptes farkasiBoczek, 1969
Vagrant on needles Lutocin, 23.09.2005
Phyllocoptes piceaeSoika, 1999
Vagrant on needles and twigs Koszarawa, 25.08.2004; 29.06.2005;01.07.2005; 02.07.2005
Lutocin, 25.09.2004; 30.07.2005;27.08.2005; 23.09.2005
Trisetacus relocatesBagnyuk andShevtchenko, 1982
Under scales at the baseof the current year’s shoots
Koszarawa, 25.08.2004; 29.06.2005;01.07.2005; 02.07.2005
Lutocin, 25.09.2004; 30.07.2005
Pinus sylvestris
Phyllocoptes farkasiBoczek, 1969
Vagrant on needles Kuszewo, 08.08.2005
Platyphytoptus sabinianaeKeifer, 1938
Sheaths of needles Urwitałt, 04.08.2004; 22.08.2005
Lutocin, 25.09.2004
Kuszewo, 08.08.2005
Setoptus multigranulatusCastagnoli, 1973
Sheaths of needles Lutocin, 25.09.2004
Urwitałt, 22.08.2005
Setoptus piniBoczek, 1964
Sheaths of needles Urwitałt, 04.08.2004; 22.08.2005
Lutocin, 25.09.2004
Kuszewo, 08.08.2005
Trisetacus silvestrisCastagnoli, 1973
Sheaths of needles Urwitałt, 04.08.2004; 22.08.2005
Lutocin, 25.09.2004
Kuszewo, 08.08.2005
92 Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99
123
where Xij is the number of mites observed on the ith level (i = 1 [botton], 2 [middle], 3
[top]) on 10 samples from the jth tree, and Zij is the fraction of Xij in the number of all
mites observed on 30 samples from the jth tree. The Zij’s for a particular tree show the
vertical distribution of the mites on this particular plant species. The Zij’s being similar for
the three levels and this distribution being similar for all trees studied, no tendency of the
mites to choose any of the levels would be detected. Note that observations of number of
mites on the three levels from a particular tree are correlated. Therefore, as the Zs followed
the analysis of variance (ANOVA) assumptions (results not presented), we applied
ANOVA for paired data. To perform the analysis, growth package (Lindsey 2007) of R
language (R Development Core Team 2006) was applied.
To compare adult and young trees subject to the mites’ occurrence, mean number of
mites in a sample from an adult and a young tree was calculated; for an adult tree, the mean
was calculated based on 30 samples whereas for a young tree, on ten samples. For Scots
pine, both variables (mean occurrence of mites in a sample from a tree for adult [first
variable] and young trees [second variable]) followed the normal distribution, as revealed
by Shapiro-Wilk test (Shapiro and Wilk 1965) as well as tests for skewness and kurtosis.
However, because their variances were not equal (as the means were calculated based on a
different number of samples: 30 for adult and 10 for young trees), we applied a t-test with
the Welch modification to the degrees of freedom, available in R language. For both
vagrant and refuge-seeking species observed on Norway spruce, the variables were not
normally distributed according to Shapiro-Wilk test. As the box-cox transformation (Quinn
and Keough 2002, sect. 4.3.1) failed to normalize the distributions of the variables, we
applied the Wilcoxon rank sum test with continuity correction to compare the medians. As
each test based on ranks, it assumes equal variances of the variables compared. None-
theless, with the main difference in the variances due to the trees with the largest values,
the Wilcoxon test should work properly for our data.
For all the analyses, R language (R Development Core Team 2006) was used, and the
significance level chosen was a = 0.05.
Results
Five species of eriophyoid mites were found on both Scots pine and Norway spruce
(Table 1). A total of 2263 (range 0–124, mean 4.5 per 10 sheaths of needles, SD 10.5)
specimens of mites were found on pine and 6926 (range 0–472, mean 13.9 per sample, SD
38.8) on spruce. Out of 500 samples for each tree species, mites were found on 279 pine
(55.8%) and 252 spruce samples (50.2%).
Since single specimens of Phyllocoptes farkasi Boczek were found on both plant spe-
cies, they were not taken into the analysis. In the case of remaining mite species the evident
predomination of mites of the genus Trisetacus Keifer was observed. On spruce Trisetacusrelocatus Bagnyuk and Shevtchenko (70.5%) outnumbered the second-abundant Phyllo-coptes piceae Soika (26.5%) while on pine Trisetacus silvestris Castagnoli (77.7%)
dominated over the second-abundant Platyphytoptus sabinianae Keifer (18.4%).
For Scots pine ANOVA for paired data did not reveal any significant differences
(P = 0.61) in the vertical distribution of mites on the trees. All mites were refuge-seeking
species. A similar result was obtained for the vagrant (P = 0.34) and refuge-seeking mite
species (P = 0.13) for Norway spruce.
The t-test showed that there was no significant difference (P = 0.50) between the mean
occurrence of mites on samples from the adult and young Scots pine trees. The same result
Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99 93
123
was obtained using the Wilcoxon test for both vagrant (P = 0.85) and refuge-seeking mite
species (P = 0.60) for Norway spruce.
Levels of tree crowns did not differ in infestation parameters for both spruce and pine
(Tables 2 and 4). No differences were detected also for age groups (Tables 3 and 4). Only
for spruce seedlings confidence intervals showed the lower values of prevalence and
density for the eriophyoid mites inhabiting scales at the base of shoots than for young and
adult trees (Table 3) and in the case of pine age groups slightly lower values of prevalence
were observed for seedlings (Table 4).
No significant differences among the crown levels of spruce adult trees in infestation
parameters were found for T. relocatus as well as P. piceae. For Calepitrimerus lutocinusLewandowski single specimens were found only in bottom parts of trees. Nalepellashevtchenkoi Boczek specimens were found in top and bottom parts of trees, also in a small
number (Table 5).
For spruce the infestation parameters of two dominant species, T. relocatus and P.piceae, did not significantly differ also in particular tree age groups. Single specimens of C.lutocinus and N. shevtchenkoi were found on spruce, except for the former on young trees,
where it occurred quite frequently. In addition, N. shevtchenkoi was not observed on
seedlings (Table 5).
Table 2 Infestation parameters and their confidence intervals (CI) for eriophyoid mites found in differentlevels of spruce trees
Pt 95% CI Ps 95% CI I 95% CI D 95% CI
Vagrant mites
Top 90.0 56.0–100 42.0 24.8–66.9 9.7 5.5–26.9 6.6 3.2–32.4
Middle 60.0 26.0–88.0 39.0 15.2–61.7 4.8 2.6–7.5 2.3 1.1–5.1
Bottom 70.0 35.0–93.0 42.0 20.3–68.9 9.9 4.4–19.9 5.8 2.1–11.3
Mites living under scales at the base of the current year’s shoots
Top 30.0 7.0–65.0 13.0 2.1–114.2 15.3 3.0–129.2 3.9 0.0–323.0
Middle 40.0 12.0–74.0 21.0 9.5–52.2 46.5 15.7–168.7 14.9 3.5–106.8
Bottom 40.0 12.0–74.0 25.0 6.2–74.6 70.9 34.4–238.5 22.5 5.0–322.3
Pt, Prevalence for trees [%]; Ps, Prevalence for samples [%]; I, Intensity; D, Density
Table 3 Infestation parameters and their confidence intervals (CI) for eriophyoid mites found in particularage groups of spruce trees
Pt 95% CI Ps 95% CI I 95% CI D 95% CI
Vagrant mites
Adult tree 90.0 56.0–100 41.0 25.7–66.0 7.5 4.1–15.5 4.9 2.4–14.3
Young tree 90.0 56.0–100 45.0 31.7–64.6 7.7 4.5–18.3 5.2 2.8–14.9
Seedlings 20.0 13.0–29.0 20.0 13.0–29.0 6.2 4.6–8.7 1.2 0.6–2.4
Mites living under scales at the base of the current year’s shoots
Adult tree 40.0 12.0–74.0 19.7 6.8–56.7 54.0 19.8–186.0 13.7 3.0–125.2
Young tree 60.0 26.0–88.0 22.0 7.3–44.3 33.7 15.1–160.2 6.1 2.1–13.5
Seedlings 11.0 6.0–19.0 11.0 6.0–19.0 8.0 5.0–12.5 0.9 0.4–0.9
Pt, Prevalence for trees [%]; Ps, Prevalence for samples [%]; I, Intensity; D, Density
94 Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99
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No significant differences in infestation parameters of eriophyoid species studied in
relation to different height levels and among different age groups of pine were observed.
Taking into account the estimated confidence intervals, significant differences for preva-
lence and density were observed only for the most numerous species, T. silvestris, and for
prevalence of Setoptus species between adult trees and seedlings (Table 6).
Table 4 Infestation parameters and their confidence intervals (CI) for eriophyoid mites found on particularlevels of adult trees and age groups of pine trees
Pt 95% CI Ps 95% CI I 95% CI D 95% CI
Vertical distribution
Top 100 – 58.0 46.0–69.0 7.0 4.4–11.6 5.3 2.9–9.5
Middle 100 – 54.0 39.0–71.0 5.4 4.5–7.1 4.8 2.4–5.8
Bottom 100 – 71.0 60.8–79.8 5.6 4.6–9.5 4.3 3.4–6.1
Age groups
Adult tree 100 – 64.0 50.4–75.4 6.2 4.8–8.0 4.5 3.2–7.1
Young tree 80.0 44.0–97.0 53.0 33.0–67.8 9.9 5.6–13.6 6.2 3.3–11.4
Seedlings 34.0 25.0–44.0 34.0 25.0–44.0 8.7 5.8–14.6 3.0 1.9–5.0
Pt, Prevalence for trees [%]; Ps, Prevalence for samples [%]; I, Intensity; D, Density
Table 5 Infestation parameters and their 95% confidence intervals for eriophyoid species infested sprucetrees
Species of eriophyoid mites
T. relocatus P. piceae C. lutocinus N. shevtchenkoi
Vertical distribution of mites on adult trees
Pt Top 40.0 12.0–74.0 90.0 56.0–100 0.0 – 10.0 0.0–45.0
Middle 40.0 12.0–74.0 50.0 19.0–81.0 0.0 – 0.0 –
Bottom 40.0 12.0–74.0 60.0 26.0–88.0 20.0 3.0–56.0 30.0 7.0–65.0
I Top 21.7 1.1–100.1 11.5 5.1–26.9 0.0 – 1.0 –
Middle 42.5 7.1–183.2 5.3 1.9–10.1 0.0 – 0.0 –
Bottom 70.1 25.4–267.0 9.8 2.4–41.0 1.0 – 2.3 0.2–44.1
D Top 7.9 0.0–171.0 6.5 1.3–54.6 0.0 – 0.02 –
Middle 13.6 1.8–108.1 2.3 0.7–5.7 0.0 – 0.0 –
Bottom 22.5 7.7–269.5 5.4 1.1–29.3 0.02 – 0.3 0–2.9
Distribution of mites on different age groups of trees
Pt Adult tree 40.0 12.0–74.0 100 – 20.0 3.0–56.0 30.0 7.0–65.0
Young tree 60.0 26.0–88.0 80.0 44.0–97.0 50.0 19.0–81.0 50.0 19.0–81.0
Seedlings 11.0 6.0–19.0 20.0 13.0–29.0 4.0 1.0–10.0 0.0 –
I Adult tree 54.4 5.3–297.5 11.3 5.4–20.2 1.0 – 2.3 0.6–67.5
Young tree 27.4 8.4–121.9 5.4 1.9–24.5 6.1 3.4–15.3 1.6 1.0–7.4
Seedlings 8.0 5.4–11.8 5.8 4.0–8.6 1.8 1.0–3.6 0.0 –
D Adult tree 14.7 2.3–174.9 4.7 1.5–22.6 0.01 – 0.1 0.0–1.1
Young tree 4.9 1.4–13.1 3.5 0–31.7 1.4 0.1–8.4 0.3 0.1–0.6
Seedlings 0.9 0.5–1.7 1.2 0.8–1.8 0.1 0.0–0.2 0.0 –
Pt, Prevalence for trees [%]; I, Intensity; D, Density
Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99 95
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Discussion
In the study on eriophyoid mites’ distribution on spruce and pine, two most common
coniferous trees in Poland, ten eriophyoid species were found, five for each plant species.
Three of them, Setoptus multigranulatus Castagnoli, T. relocatus and T. silvestris were new
for Poland. Phyllocoptes farkasi has so far been found on three pine species: P. sylvestis,
Pinus nigra J. F. Arnold and Pinus jeffreyi Grev. and Balf. (Boczek 1969; Soika and
Łabanowski 1999). The presence of this eriophyoid on Norway spruce should not be
thought of as a proof for this plant species to be a host for this mite, because this infestation
might have been accidental (with just single specimens having been found). For Norway
spruce T. relocatus was a predominant species. Its significant share in the species com-
position of the eriophyoid mites inhabiting spruce resulted from the fact that, as the species
living in refugia (under the buds’ scales, at the base of the current-year shoots), it
developed more numerous colonies than the vagrant species did (Bagnyuk and Shevchenko
1982). This was also confirmed by the values of infestation parameters. Prevalence seemed
lower for T. relocatus than for P. piceae, the latter being the second abundant species, but
intensity seemed higher for the former. These differences, however, were not shown by the
statistical analysis owing to a wide range of the mite counts observed, which resulted from
numerically heterogeneous colonies.
Table 6 Infestation parameters and their 95% confidence intervals for eriophyoid species that infested pinetrees
Species of eriophyoid mites
T. silvestris P. sabinianae Setoptus spp.
Vertical distribution of mites on adult trees
Pt Top 90.0 56.0–100 40.0 12.0–74.0 50.0 19.0–81.0
Middle 100 – 40.0 12.0–74.0 20.0 3.0–56.0
Bottom 100 – 20.0 3.0–56.0 30.0 7.0–65.0
I Top 6.7 3.8–11.2 3.0 1.2–11.5 1.9 1.3–6.0
Middle 5.2 4.3–6.9 2.6 0.7–5.4 1.5 0.9–9.3
Bottom 5.8 4.5–7.1 1.8 1.2–4.8 1.8 0.9–10.3
D Top 4.5 2.1–8.8 0.5 0.1–3.1 0.3 0.1–1.8
Middle 3.6 1.7–7.2 0.1 0.06–0.4 0.04 –
Bottom 4.2 2.9–5.8 0.1 0.01–0.8 0.1 0–0.3
Distribution of mites on different age groups of trees
Pt Adult tree 100 – 50.0 19.0–81.0 60.0 26.0–88.0
Young tree 80.0 44.0–97.0 60.0 26.0–88.0 30.0 7.0–65.0
Seedlings 25.0 17.0–35.0 20.0 13.0–29.0 4.0 1.0–10.0
I Adult tree 5.9 4.5–7.8 2.7 1.7–6.7 2.1 1.2–4.1
Young tree 7.2 3.3–34 7.2 2.2–61.0 1.7 0.0–2.6
Seedlings 4.6 3.4–6.4 9.6 5.4–20.1 9.0 0.5–24.3
D Adult tree 4.1 2.6–6.2 0.2 0.1–0.9 0.1 0.0–0.6
Young tree 4.4 2.2–19.6 1.6 0.1–17.3 0.1 0.0–0.2
Seedlings 1.1 0.8–1.7 1.9 0.9–4.8 0.4 0.0–9.9
Pt, Prevalence for trees [%]; I, Intensity; D, Density
96 Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99
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Apart from P. farkasi, found only on few pine trees, all eriophyoid species were found
on plants in each age group studied. For both pine and spruce, only N. shevtchenkoi,inhabiting spruce, was not found on seedlings; moreover, the values of density parameters
of particular mite species did not significantly differ for adult and young trees of both
species. Based on these results one may presume that the development of eriophyoids
begins on seedlings or young trees and their population increases with the tree’s devel-
opment. This probably explains almost the same species composition of eriophyoids for all
the age groups and plant species studied as well as similar mite density on young and adult
trees. For this reason it seems likely that the inhabiting of new trees by these mite species
consists of falling from adult trees on seedling and young trees growing close around. This
movement strategy for these eriophyoids may be as important for short distance move-
ments as passive dispersal by wind currents or phoresy for long distance movements.
The lack of differences in eriophyoids’ vertical distribution on particular parts of adult
trees could result from the number of the samples taken and the low density of eriophyoids
that was observed. Perhaps increasing the number of samples would reveal some prefer-
ences of these mites to specific parts or plant age; on the other hand, such high P-values
obtained for different hypotheses indicate a strong credibility of the here-formed conclu-
sions. Moreover, because of the labor- and time-consuming methods of collecting the
samples and analyzing the material, increasing the number of samples was impossible.
Vertical distribution of eriophyoid mites on coniferous plants has been studied only on
C. sempervirens. Observations on two eriophyoid species inhabiting this plant showed that
Trisetacus juniperinus (Nalepa) preferred buds in the top zones of tree crown, while
Epitrimerus cupressi (Keifer), a vagrant species, did not show this tendency (Castagnoli
and Simoni 2000). This may suggest that the preference of an eriophyoid mite species to a
plant crown level may be strictly related to the growth strategy of this species. This was
confirmed by other studies on the distribution of galls produced by eriophyoids on
deciduous trees. For Eriophyes fraxiniflora Felt the number of galls was the greatest on the
top level of tree crown (Wawrzynski and Ascerno 1989); the opposite tendency, however,
was observed in the study on distribution of galls produced by Eriophyes laevis (Nalepa)
on leaves of alder trees (Vuorisalo et al. 1989).
Uneven distribution of eriophyoids within a plant can be also related to food quality and
dispersion phenomenon. Eriophyoid mites prefer young plant tissues (Boczek and Shev-
chenko 1996); on herbaceous plants they are more numerous on top than low parts (Gibson
1974), which additionally facilitates their dispersion (Gibson and Painter 1957; Nault and
Styer 1969). In addition, the results of studies concerning the vertical distribution of galls-
producing eriophyoids (Wawrzynski and Ascerno 1989; Vuorisalo et al. 1989; Kuczynski
and Skoracka 2005) as well as the vagrant species inhabiting crop trees and shrubs
(Muraleedharan and Ambalatharsu 1983; Muraleedharan et al. 1988; 1994; de Lillo et al.
2005) might suggest that also on spruce and pine some preferences to infest a particular
part of a plant could be expected. For Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntz a higher number of
eriophyoid mites were observed on the top and middle than on low parts of bushes;
however, each of the eriophyoid species preferred a different plant part (Muraleedharan
et al. 1988). The lack of preference for inhabiting specific tree parts may in the case of
coniferous plants result from the fact that these trees offer the eriophyoids stable and long-
lasting conditions for living and reproducing, which makes the mites not need to migrate to
seek winter shelters (Boczek and Shevtchenko 1996). Moreover, young tissues appearing
each year on terminal parts of shoots make it unnecessary for the eriophyoid mites to move
towards the top plant parts.
Exp Appl Acarol (2008) 44:89–99 97
123
From our results it follows that in studies to eriophyoid mites on pine and spruce,
samples can be taken from the bottom part of a tree. Because of the lack of differences in
the eriophyoids’ densities among the parts of plants investigated, revealed in the present
study, the adapted sampling method may be considered reliable in determining both
species composition and density of eriophyoids. Nonetheless, with no significant differ-
ences in density and species composition found between young and adult trees and with
sampling from young trees less labor-consuming than from adult trees, sampling from
young trees that grow among adult trees may be seen the most efficient sampling method.
Acknowledgments We wish to thank Prof. Jan Boczek (WULS-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland), Prof. Kro-pczynska-Linkiewicz (WULS-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland) and dr Anna Skoracka (Adam MickiewiczUniversity, Poznan, Poland) for their valuable suggestions on the manuscript. The study was financiallysupported by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, grant no. 50404120011. We would also liketo thank the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments on the first version of thispaper.
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