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Keywords = leaf domatia–mite mutualism

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12 pages, 1461 KB  
Article
A Snap-Shot of Domatial Mite Diversity of Coffea arabica in Comparison to the Adjacent Umtamvuna Forest in South Africa
by Sivuyisiwe Situngu, Nigel P. Barker and Susanne Vetter
Diversity 2020, 12(2), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/d12020079 - 18 Feb 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3504
Abstract
Some plant species possess structures known as leaf domatia, which house mites. The association between domatia-bearing plants and mites has been proposed to be mutualistic, and has been found to be important in species of economic value, such as grapes, cotton, avocado and [...] Read more.
Some plant species possess structures known as leaf domatia, which house mites. The association between domatia-bearing plants and mites has been proposed to be mutualistic, and has been found to be important in species of economic value, such as grapes, cotton, avocado and coffee. This is because leaf domatia affect the distribution, diversity and abundance of predatory and mycophagous mites found on the leaf surface. As a result, plants are thought to benefit from increased defence against pathogens and small arthropod herbivores. This study assesses the relative diversity and composition of mites on an economically important plant host (Coffea aribica) in comparison to mites found in a neighbouring indigenous forest in South Africa. Our results showed that the coffee plantations were associated with only predatory mites, some of which are indigenous to South Africa. This indicates that coffee plantations are able to be successfully colonised by indigenous beneficial mites. We also found an “edge effect”, in that coffee trees at the edge of the plantation hosted fewer mite species. These results are a snap-shot from a single sampling period. Nonetheless, they highlight the potential importance of this mutualism in commercial crop species and the possible role of faunal exchanges between indigenous and exotic crop species. This study expands our understanding of the mite–plant mutualism in Southern Africa, a region where acarological studies are sparse. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity of Mites)
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