Phytoseiidae mite (Parasitiformes: Phytoseiidae) assemblages from different Cerrado vegetation types

Abstract

Phytoseiidae are predatory mites with some species widely used in biological control programs. Currently, 2,985 species have been described, among them, 260 species have already been recorded in Brazil. Several species of phytoseiid mites that inhabiting native vegetation remnants in Brazil have the potential to act as predators of crop pests contributing to natural biological control. Here, we accessed the diversity of phytoseiid mites on plants in three Cerrado vegetation formations. Twenty-one natural vegetation remnants distributed in the grassland, forest and savannah vegetation formations in the municipalities at Barro Alto and Niquelândia, Goiás State, Brazil, were sampled. All sampled remnants were close to areas exploited for nickel mining. Species richness of mites was estimated by first-order Jackknife method in order to compare phytoseiid mite communities in vegetation formations. The similarity in communities among different vegetation formations was evaluated using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and ANOSIM. A total of 279 phytoseiid mites distributed in 19 species and 11 genera were sampled. The richness of mite species estimated for the grassland formation was lower than the one of the forest and savannah remnants. However, the composition of the phytoseiid species did not vary among vegetation formations. The most abundant phytoseiid species sampled were Euseius sibelius (De Leon) (67 specimens), Euseius citrifolius Denmark and Muma (47) and Transeius bellottii (Moraes and Mesa) (29). The present work demonstrated that remnants of natural vegetation of the Cerrado can serve as important reservoirs for the conservation of Phytoseiidae biodiversity, even under the impacts caused by nickel mining activities, and potentially provide ecosystem services for sustainable agricultural yields.