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Influence of fruit age of the Brazilian Green Dwarf coconut on the relationship between Aceria guerreronis population density and percentage of fruit damage

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Abstract

The coconut mite, Aceria guerreronis Keifer (Acari: Eriophyidae), is one of the main coconut pests in the American, African and parts of the Asian continents, reaching densities of several thousand mites per fruit. Diagrammatic scales have been developed to standardize the estimation of the population densities of A. guerreronis according to the estimated percentage of damage, but these have not taken into account the possible effect of fruit age, although previous studies have already reported the variation in mite numbers with fruit age. The objective of this study was to re-construct the relation between damage and mite density at different fruit ages collected in an urban coconut plantation containing the green dwarf variety ranging from the beginning to nearly the end of the infestation, as regularly seen under field conditions in northeast Brazil, in order to improve future estimates with diagrammatic scales. The percentage of damage was estimated with two diagrammatic scales on a total of 470 fruits from 1 to 5 months old, from a field at Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil, determining the respective number of mites on each fruit. The results suggested that in estimates with diagrammatic scales: (1) fruit age has a major effect on the estimation of A. guerreronis densities, (2) fruits of different ages should be analyzed separately, and (3) regular evaluation of infestation levels should be done preferably on fruits of about 3–4 months old, which show the highest densities.

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Acknowledgements

To Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for funding this work, the MSc scholarship granted to ASGS, and the PNPD grant to PSA. Thanks also to anonymous reviewers who helped improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Produção Vegetal (PPGPV), Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), Ilhéus, Bahia, 45662-900, Brazil

    André Silva Guimarães Sousa, Poliane Sá Argolo & Anibal Ramadan Oliveira

  2. Departamento de Agronomia, Área de Fitossanidade, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 52171-900, Brazil

    Manoel Guedes Correa Gondim Jr.

  3. Departamento de Entomologia e Acarologia, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ – USP), Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil

    Gilberto José de Moraes

Authors
  1. André Silva Guimarães Sousa
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  2. Poliane Sá Argolo
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  3. Manoel Guedes Correa Gondim Jr.
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  4. Gilberto José de Moraes
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  5. Anibal Ramadan Oliveira
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Correspondence to Anibal Ramadan Oliveira.

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Sousa, A.S.G., Argolo, P.S., Gondim, M.G.C. et al. Influence of fruit age of the Brazilian Green Dwarf coconut on the relationship between Aceria guerreronis population density and percentage of fruit damage. Exp Appl Acarol 72, 329–337 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-017-0152-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-017-0152-8

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