About flat mites

Economic importance

Although the USA is currently free from many serious mite pests and mite-borne diseases that are present throughout the world, we must be prepared for the consequences of continued everyday international movement of people and goods. The identification methods and diagnostic information currently available do not allow accurate and reliable identification for the majority of economically significant mite species. Flat mites remain one of the most economically significant of all acarine groups. All species are phytophagous and the species that have been identified as pests have shown the potential to cause severe economic damage to agricultural crops, ornamentals, and timber (Baker and Tuttle 1987, Ochoa and Salas 1989, Evans et al . 1993, Childers et al. 2003b). They cause damage directly through feeding on host plant tissue and indirectly through the transmission of plant viruses. Through direct feeding, flat mites can cause severe damage to the leaves and fruit of their host, and in some cases to the bark and roots. Some species are associated with the formation of galls, while others extensively burrow into the cambium. Flat mite species in the genus Raoiella were recently discovered, by the authors, to feed via the stomata on their host’s leaves, adding another dimension to the ecology of the family. Some species in the genus Brevipalpus are associated with more than 15 different plant viruses of commercial fruit trees and ornamentals in the Americas. For example, the damage by the citrus leprosis virus carried by Brevipalpus phoenicis sensu lato costs hundreds of millions of dollars in the Americas every year (Childers et al. 2003).