A Suspected Virus Disease of the Citrus Red Mite Panonychus citri (McG.)

Abstract

A DISEASED condition of the citrus red mite, Panonychus citri (McG.), was first observed in material collected dear Oxnard, California, in 1958. Experimental proof that the disease was transmissible was obtained by two methods: first, by transferring healthy mites to lemons bearing a diseased culture, and secondly, by spraying an aqueous suspension, prepared from ground-up diseased mites, on to healthy mite colonies. In each case the healthy mites developed infection¹. Many diseased mites become paralysed with the legs stiffened ventrally. Diarrhœa sometimes occurs and mites may be found dead with the anal end fixed to the feeding surface by fæcal material.