Mites of cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz) habitats in Southern

Abstract This paper presents the first of a series of studies to evaluate the safety of a classical biological control program of the cassava green mite Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar) (Acari: Tetranychidae) in Mozambique and Malawi involving the introduction of Typhlodromalus aripo DeLeon, a predatory mite of the family Phytoseiidae. The objective of this study was to determine the mite fauna of cassava and other common plant species in or around cassava fields in those countries. Twenty-one phytoseiid species were recorded in Mozambique and 32 in Malawi. On cassava, the dominant phytoseiids were Euseius baetae (Meyer and Rodrigues), Euseius bwende (Pritchard and Baker) and Typhlodromalus saltus (Denmark and Muma) in Mozambique, and Euseius fustis (Pritchard and Baker), Iphiseius degenerans (Berlese) and T. saltus in Malawi. On other plants, the dominant phytoseiids were E. baetae, Amblyseius sundi Pritchard and Baker and Paraphytoseius horrifer (Pritchard and Baker) in Mozambique, and I. degenerans, Euse...