Influence of environmental variables on plant mite assemblages: implications on bio-control strategies in Tropical scenario

Abstract

Abstract The seasonal variation in mite populations on four selected plants, namely Justicia adhatoda L., Wissadula periplocifolia (L.) Thwaites, Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr. and Syzygium jambolanum (Lam.) DC from tropical agro-climatic zone in India has been studied. Temperature (°C), rainfall (24 hrs in mm), relative humidity (at 08:30 hrs and 17:30 hrs) were considered as predictor variables to analyze various ecological attributes of the mite populations. A consecutive two years (September 2015 to 2017) study at three different time points, viz pre-monsoon, Monsoon and Post-monsoon succeeded to sample 13,210 mites speciemens from these four host plants. The study revealed that the occurrence of mite species was strongly correlated with habitats, temperature, rainfall and humidity across the seasons. Pre-monsoon, Monsoon and Post-monsoon times were shown to have significant influence on the dynamics of mite communities. The result suggested that the mite assemblages are correlated with their host plant types, environmental variables and seasonal factors. This finding helps us in designing mite control strategies in different seasons in Southern West Bengal, India. Depending of the result of our study and of other, one can design strategy of the biological control of pest mite using the predatory mites at different seasons and can obtain more economic benefit in term of greater crop production in Tropical scenario.