Species composition and seasonal occurrence of phytoseiid mites on weeds around the eggplant field in Osaka Prefecture

Abstract

The species composition and seasonal occurrence of phytoseiid mites on weeds around the eggplant field were investigated by collecting the weeds from April 2016 to March 2017 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The phytoseiid mites were extracted from the collected weeds using Tullgren funnels provided with a light bulb. Totally, 288 adult females were sampled, and 12 native and 1 non-native species were identified. The predominant species was Scapulaseius okinawanus (Ehara), accounting for 49.7% of the total number of identified adult females. The second most abundant species was Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) (16.3%), followed by Amblyseius tsugawai Ehara (14.2%) and Neoseiulus koyamanus (Ehara and Yokogawa) (7.3%). The four species are all native. Scapulaseius okinawanus was abundant from May to July and in November, and N. barkeri was captured exclusively in September.