Abstract
The densities of the mango bud mite, Aceria mangiferae Sayed were inspected on 22 mango cultivars from December 1997 to June 1998. Cultivars 'Keenan', an unknown cultivar, 'cv. 9819', 'Brander', and 'Bombay Green' had significantly more mites than cvs. 'Joellen', 'Duncan', 'Red Itamaraca', 'Smith', 'Wally' and 'Hindi'. During this study, A. mangiferae was found most frequently on apical growing buds rather than on the lateral dormant buds. Lower numbers of A. mangiferae were found from March through July 2003 compared to higher mite densities from September to February. Higher numbers of A. mangiferae were found in peripheral scales of the bud than in the scales forming the meristematic dome within the apical bud. The spatial distribution of A. mangiferae within the tree showed more mites on the upper and middle tree canopy than on lower portions of the canopy. The species exhibited aggregated patterns of spatial distribution. Sample size requirements for fixed levels of precision were determined by using variance-mean relationships. We determined that the proportion of mite-infested buds can be used to monitor populations of A. mangiferae in commercial mango orchards. The results of an experiment testing the effectiveness of different acaricides and their effect on mite densities in Florida are discussed.
