Vincenzo Vacante
CABI Head Office
Oxfordshire, UK
2010, 378 pp.
ISBN 978-1-84593-498-9
$160.00 (hard cover)

Mite pests of citrus are a problem worldwide because of the damage they cause to leaves and fruit that affects fruit quality and yield, as well as when they are vectors of disease. With human traffic increasingly moving plant materials around the world, mite species have the potential to easily spread to new regions. It is essential to be able to differentiate citrus mite species that are endemic and those that are invasive in order to make rapid determinations of their risk to citrus and to make management decisions. Citrus Mites is a study of mites that are damaging to citrus plants around the world. With more than 17,000 species of mites known to damage plants worldwide, it is nice to have a book that drills down to the essential top 104 species known to be important to citrus. The focus of the book is on the prostigmatid mites belonging to the families Phytoptidae, Eriophyidae, Diptilomiopidae, Tarsonemidae, Tenuipalpidae, Tukerellidae, and Tetranychidae. Vacante has provided a key and numerous references to guide the user in the fundamentals of external morphology, systematics, and bioecology of citrus mite pests.

The book contains an introductory section that provides brief information and extensive references on citriculture, mite morphology, preparation of specimens, types of plant damage caused by mites, and various control methods. The section on citriculture reports statistics on citrus production and the types of citrus varieties found in various regions of the world. The morphology section defines structures and terms that are used throughout the key. The audience of users would have been broadened considerably by providing greater detail in defining terms and labeling the morphological structures that are later used in the key. The section on correct preparation of specimens is critical to the identification of mites and is very helpful. The damage section provides a brief overview of the range of symptoms that mites cause to plants, and the control section briefly describes natural and chemical control of mites.

In the second, main section of the book, Vacante provides a complete key to the subfamilies, tribes, genera, and species of mite pests of citrus based (in most cases) on adult morphological characteristics. It is extremely helpful to have a single key for known mite pests of citrus instead of wading through separate keys of families and genera with vast numbers of mite species that are not likely to be found on citrus. Vacante’s key assumes a basic knowledge of morphological structures of mites and would have been greatly improved by providing a glossary and additional labeling of the drawings to define structures. The user must refer to the introductory chapter on morphology for explanations of terms and structures used in the key, and not all terms are defined. Another awkward point in the key occurs when the user reaches a species name in a couplet and is directed to a figure associated with that species, not the description of the species. If a species does not have a figure, then the user must go to the index to find the species description.

After the key, the subsequent chapters provide details of each of the species important to citrus in the seven mite families. Within these sections, diagnostic characteristics, geographical distribution, bioecology, symptomatology and damage, and control for each species are described in various levels of detail, based on the available literature and the experience of the author. As a citrus IPM specialist, I found these species descriptions to be especially useful because they provide a quick read about the distribution and ecology of a pest, letting me know if that species would likely be found in my area and what type of damage it might cause.

The book concludes with brief, general discussions of the systematics, bioecology, and pest management practices that assist with control of pest mites. Vacante states that he did not attempt to exhaustively cover these topics, but provides this information to give perspective on mite management.

In summary, this text will appeal to researchers, regulatory agencies, managers, and students with training in mite morphology and the use of slide-mounted material who are interested in identification of mites that have been collected from citrus. As Vacante points out, mite populations are strongly influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and citrus production methods. Thus, climate change and pest management practices, as well as transport of mites on plant material, have the potential to dramatically alter the distribution of mites worldwide. This book provides a single key and a discussion of the bioecology of each pest with references to allow the user to rapidly identify mites to species, determine their potential for damage, and determine if a response is needed.

E. E. Grafton-Cardwell
Department of Entomology
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521, USA
E-mail: eegraftoncardwell@ucanr.edu

American Entomologist
Vol. 58, No.3, Fall 2012