Mites and leaf domatia: no evidence of mutualism in Coffea arabica plants

Authors

  • Gustavo Quevedo Romero Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal
  • Rodrigo Damasco Daud Universidade Federal de Goiás, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Ecologia
  • Adriana Trevizoli Salomão Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia
  • Luiz Fernando Martins Centro de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Mello
  • Reinaldo José Fazzio Feres Universidade Estadual Paulista, Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Zoologia e Botânica
  • Woodruff Whitman Benson Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal

Keywords:

mite-plant interactions, mite community, space limitation, Atlantic Rain Forest, mutualism breakdown

Abstract

We conducted experiments by blocking off pit-like domatia from old and new leaves of Coffea arabica L., using tiny resin drops, to investigate the role of domatia on i) mite abundance at the community level and on ii) leaf damages. More than 77% of the mites collected were predators, whereas 19 and 3.3% were omnivores and phytophages, respectively. Domatia blockage treatment had no influence either on mite abundances or leaf damages. However, predatory and omnivorous mites were more abundant on new than on the old leaves; phytophagous mites occurred at very low density and occupied only plants having open domatia. The absence of mutualism between mites and C. arabica probably occurred because the entrances of domatia were too small and did not enable the entry of fitoseid predators in these structures.

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Published

2011-03-01

How to Cite

Romero, G. Q., Daud, R. D., Salomão, A. T., Martins, L. F., Feres, R. J. F., & Benson, W. W. (2011). Mites and leaf domatia: no evidence of mutualism in Coffea arabica plants. Biota Neotropica, 11(1). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/795

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