Acarofauna asociada al cultivo de Café (Coffea arabica L.) en la Granja Experimental Villa Marina de la Universidad de Pamplona.

Abstract

Coffee has become the basis of the Colombian economy, contributing to the development of the country, since it benefits more than 550,000 producing families. Like any crop, coffee is subject to the harmful action of various arthropods, including mites. Which can attack coffee directly by feeding on the tissues of different organs and indirectly by acting as vectors of phytopathogens, mainly viruses. Despite its economic and social importance, knowledge of the mites associated with coffee crop in Colombia is scarce. In this way, the present work focuses on the identification of mites associated with the Castillo and Colombia coffee varieties in the Villa Marina Experimental Farm of the University of Pamplona. In lots planted with these varieties, four plants were selected, which were divided into three different thirds (high, medium and low). In each of these regions, 5 leaves were removed, totaling 15 per plant and 60 per batch, weekly. The collection of the leaves was carried out for 10 weeks. The collected specimens were mounted in Hoyer's medium on microscopy slides. The study showed a great diversity of mite species present in the evaluated coffee varieties, being collected a total of 641 specimens, 360 belong to the Castillo variety and 281 to the Colombia variety, distributed in 5 orders, 15 families, 19 genus and 31 species. The identification of species such as Brevipalpus papayensis, Amblyseius herbicolus, Iphizeoides zuluagai and tarsonemids of the genus Excelsotarsonemus is highlighted. The collected specimens presented different ecological niches, including phytophagous, predatory, and fungivorous.