Abstract
Damages caused by pests to leaves can indirectly affect populations of other associated arthropods. The relative abundance of mites was compared across young healthy leaves, mature healthy leaves and mature leaves damaged by the citrus leafminer, Phyllocnistis citrella Stainton, on grapefruit in Florida and Texas. The spider mite Eotetranychus sexmaculatus (Riley) (Tetranychidae) was significantly more abundant on mined leaves in Florida, whereas in Texas tetranychids were found sporadically. Predaceous phytoseiid mites (Phytoseiidae) were significantly more abundant on mature mined leaves than on mature leaves without mines. Iphiseiodes quadripilis (Banks) (n= 139), Typhlodromalus peregrinus (Muma) (n= 122) and Euseius mesembrinus (Dean) (n= 18) were the most abundant phytoseiids in Florida; E. mesembrinus was the dominant species in Texas [>90% of identified specimens (n=13)]. Although relatively high numbers of predaceous stigmaeid mites (Stigmaeidae) were found in some occasions in Florida, they had a patchy distribution, resulting in no significant differences between mined and unmined leaf types in most sampling dates. They were not found in Texas.