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Material examined
Taxonomy
Common Name
Distribution
Taxonomy Changes
Diagnosis
Hosts
Similar Taxa
Biology
References
Notes
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Fig. 1.  Bryobia larvae, dorsal habitus - B. rubrioculus (as B. arborea) and B. praetiosa (redrawn from Morgan & Anderson 1957).

Bryobia rubrioculus (Scheuten, 1857)

Material examined

specimens were not examined

Taxonomy

Subfamily Bryobiinae

Tribe Bryobiini

Common Name

Brown mite

Distribution

+Australia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, CIS, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, *Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, USA, Uruguay, Yemen

In Australia this species has been collected in Tasmania particularly on pome fruits (Miller 1966), in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria (Womersley 1940), Queensland (as B. praetiosa, Bengston 1960) and in New South Wales (Gutierrez and Schicha 1983). 

Taxonomy Changes

Sannio rubrioculus Scheuten 1857

Bryobia rubrioculus (Scheuten) van Eyndhoven 1956

Bryobia bioculus Amerlind 1862, synonymy Livshits & Mitrofanov 1971

Bryobia pyri Boisduval 1867, synonymy Livshits & Mitrofanov 1971

Bryobia goriensis Reck 1947, syonymy Livshits & Mitrofanov 1971

Bryobia redikorzevi Reck 1947, synonymy Frommer & Jorgensen 1972

Bryobia arborea Morgan & Anderson 1957, synonymy Baker & Pritchard 1960

Diagnosis

Larva (Fig. 1)

Female

Hosts

> 70 recorded species of host plant, but most commonly associated with Rosaceae: Citrus reticulata (Rutaceae), Cydonia oblonga (Rosaceae), Ficus sp. (Moraceae), Fragaria sp. (Rosaceae), Lonicera spp. (Caprifoliaceae), Malus domestica, M. purpurea, Malus sp. (Rosaceae), Populus tremula, P. tremuloides (Salicaceae), Prunus americana, Pr. armeniaca, Pr. avium, Pr. cerasus, Pr. divaricata, Pr. domestica, Pr. dulcis, Pr. insititia, Pr. persica, Pr. pisardi, Pr. serrulata, Pr. spinosa, Pyrus communis, Py. japonica, Py. pyrifolia, Rubus spp. (Rosaceae), Ulmus americana, Ulmus sp. (Ulmaceae), Vitis sp. (Vitaceae)

Similar Taxa

Bryobia kissophila (host: Hedera spp.), B. ribis (Ribes sp.), B. praetiosa (> 250 species host) - see Notes

Biology

In Australia, this species is widespread on fruit trees where it damages the leaves and flower buds, hindering the opening of flowers.  Later in summer the injury causes the foliage to become lighter in colour.

This species feeds mainly on the upper surface of leaves and eggs are deposited on both twigs and leaves.  Eggs are bright red, smooth, spherical and lack a dorsal stipe.

References

Amerling, K. (1862) Die Bedeutsamkeit der Milben in der Lande-, Garten- und Forstwirtschaft. Centralbl. Ges. Landeskultur: 51 

Baker, E.W. and Pritchard, A.E. (1960)  The tetranychoid mites of Africa.  Hilgardia 29: 455-574 

Bengston, M. (1960)  How to control major pests of apples and pears in the Granite Belt.  Queensland Agricultural Journal 86: 102-107

Boisduval, A. (1867) Essai sur l'entomologie horticole.  Paris: 648pp. 

Bolland H.R., Gutierrez J., and Flechtmann C.H.W. (1998)   World Catalogue of the Spider Mite Family (Acari: Tetranychidae). Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, 392 pp.

+Froggatt, W.W. (1921)  Orchard and garden mites. No. 2 - Spinning mites (Family Tetranychidae).  Agricultural Gazette Sydney 32: 130-135

Frommer, R.L. and Jorgensen, C.D. (1972) Comparative morphology of Bryobia rubrioculus (Scheuten) (Acarina: Tetranychidae).  Acarologia 14(3): 368-378 

+Gutierrez, J. and Schicha, E. (1983)  The spider mite family Tetranychidae (Acari) in New South Wales.  International Journal of Acarology 9: 99-116

Livshits, I.Z. and Mitrofanov, V.I. (1971)  The mites of the genus Bryobia C.L. Koch, 1836 (Acariformes, Bryobiidae).  Tr. Gos . Nikit. Bot. Sada 51: 1-112

Migeon, A. and Dorkeld, F. (2006-2017) Spider Mites Web: a comprehensive database for the Tetranychidae. http://www.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/spmweb

+Miller, L.W. (1966)  The tetranychid mites of Tasmania.  Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 100: 53-76

Reck, G.F. (1947) Genus Bryobia Koch (Tetranychidae) described on the data material from Georgia.  Soob. Akad. Nauk Gruz. S.S.R. 8: 653-660 

*Scheuten, A. (1857)  Einiges uber Milben.  Arch. Naturg. 23: 104-114

Smiley, R.L. and Baker, E.W. (1995) A report on some tetranychid mites (Acari: Prostigmata) from Yemen.  International Journal of Acarology 21: 135-164

van Endhoven, G.L. (1956)  Bryobia cristata (Duges, 1834) and Bryobia rubrioculus (Scheuten, 1875) (Acar.).  Notulae ad Tetranychidas 3.  Entomol. Ber., Amst. 16: 45-46

Notes

Bryobia rubrioculus has long been confused with B. praetiosa.

Morgan & Anderson (1957) indicated how to separate praetiosa from rubrioculus by using the larvae (Fig. 1), and characters of the female.  The two species can be separated using the length of the idiosoma, and distance between dorsal opisthosomal setae of the female: idiosoma Br 636, Bp 878; c1-c1 64 Br, 142 Bp; d1-d1 45 Br, 122 Bp; e1-e1 32 Br, 85 Bp.

Frommer and Jorgensen (1972) provide an excellent comparative study of this species' morphology, and discuss the history of misidentifications within the genus.