Eriophyes Mangiferae (Sayed) A Pest Of Mango

Eriophyes mangiferae was originally described as Aceria mangiferae by Sayed (1946) from Egypt. It appeared to cause malformations of the mango inflorescence resulting in crop reduction in Egypt (Hassan, 1944; Sayed, 1946; Attiah, 1955). Vegetative and flowering buds are affected (figs. lA and lB). A second eriophyid, Metaculus mangiferae (Attiah), was found to prefer the lower surface of young leaves and occasionally buds but did not cause malformation of the inflorescence (Zaher and Osman, 1970) and russeting of terminal buds and inflorescences (Abou-awad, 1981). Kauser (1959) considered the problem was caused by a virus. Summanwar et al. (1966) and Varma et al. (1972) isolated Fusarium moniliforme var. subglutinans Wollenw. and Rg. from malformed tissue. Varma et al. (1974) isolated this fungus from more than 300 different samples collected from different parts of India. They were successful in reproducing the malformation by inoculating healthy shoots with moniliforme. Bhatnagar and Beniwal (1977) reported that Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht was involved in causing malformation of mango panicles. The fungus was systemically present in parenchymatous cells of the pith region of malformed tissues. They were able to produce bunchy top by inoculating the fungus through the soil. Attiah (1959) found the mango bud mite, Eriophyes mangiferae, at Homestead, Florida in malformed inflorescences. Since that time further surveys have shown this problem to occur in south Florida and to be associated with mango bud mite. It is possible that this mite is an efficient vector of pathogens that cause malformed inflorescence in mango; however, this has not been proven to date.