Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-qxsvm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-04T09:21:30.237Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A morphological study of variation in Tyrophagus (Acarina), with particular reference to populations infesting cheese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Phyllis L. Robertson
Phyllis L. Robertson
Affiliation:
Phyllis Anderson Research Fellow, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The difficulty of deciding the systematic status of variations within and between populations of Tyrophagus is considered in relation to the wide distribution of the genus and the many materials it infests.

Variation within populations of what was thought to be one species infesting cheese is explained by the isolation of three closely similar forms which it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate by measurement alone. Frequency distributions overlap slightly for four linear measurement ratios on which separation is attempted, but differences between them are emphasised by differences in minute structural characters and they are therefore accepted as distinct species, identified as longior (Gervais, 1844), palmarum Oudemans, 1924, and putrescentiae (Schrank, 1781).

Variation between populations attacking plant materials and other stored products in addition to cheese is accounted for to some extent by the recognition of three further Tyrophagus species, oudemansi Robertson, 1959, brevicrinatus Robertson, 1959, and tropicus Robertson, 1959.

Within the species recognised, significant differences are recorded in dorsal hair characters and body proportions between populations on cheese produced in different geographical areas, and also between cheese populations and those infesting other materials, and these differences are thought to be at a racial level.

T. longior, T. palmarum and T. putrescentiae are found to be distributed around the world, but as cheese pests they occupy somewhat different, although overlapping, geographical zones, since longior is a temperate-to-cool form, palmarum a temperate form and putrescentiae a subtropical or tropical form. The three are also found to occupy different, but overlapping ecological zones, making possible their association in mixed populations.

Confusion in ecological data previously published on Tyrophagus is thought to be attributable in part to similarities in the morphology, geographical distribution and ecology of its species, and to their close association.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , October 1961 , pp. 501 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

André, M. (1934). Notes sur les acariens observés dans les magasms régionaux de tabacs.—Ann. Epiphyt. 19 pp. 331–356.Google Scholar
Baker, E. W. (1954). Mites as household pests.—Proc. 41st annu. Mtg chem. Spec. Mfrs Ass. pp. 120–122.Google Scholar
Banks, N. (1906). A revision of the Tyroglyphidae of the United States.—Tech. Ser. U.S. Bur. Ent. no. 13, 34 pp.Google Scholar
Banks, N. (1915). The Acarina or mites. A review of the group for the use of economic entomologists.—Rep. U.S. Dep. Agric. no. 108, 153 pp.Google Scholar
Berlese, A. (1884). Acari, Myriapoda et Scorpiones hucusque in Italia reperta, fasc. 14, no. 6, Padua.Google Scholar
Birch, L. C. (1948). The intrinsic rate of natural increase of an insect population.—J. Anim. Ecol. 17 pp. 15–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bollaerts, D. & Breny, R. (1951). Les acariens nuisibles aux matiéres entreposées.—Rev. Agric. Brux. 4 pp. 738–764.Google Scholar
Cazier, M. A. & Bacon, A. L. (1949). Introduction to quantitative systematics.—Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist. 93 pp. 343–388.Google Scholar
Dowling, G. B. & Thomas, E. W. P. (1942). Cheese itch: contact dermatitis due to mite-infested cheese dust.—Brit. med. J. no. 4270 p. 543.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eales, N. B. (1918). Cheese mites.—J. Bd Agric. 24 pp. 1087–1096.Google Scholar
Gervais, P. (1844). Histoire naturelle des insectes. Aptéres. Tom III. Paris.Google Scholar
Grandjean, F. (1939). La chaetotaxie des pattes chez les Acaridiae.—Bull. Soc. zool. Fr. 64 pp. 50–60.Google Scholar
Griffiths, D. A. (1960). Some field habitats of mites of stored food products.—Ann. appl. Biol. 48 pp. 134–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemming, F. Ed. (1958). Direction 94. Clarification of the entry relating to the generic name Sarcoptes Latreille, (class Arachnida) made on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology, by the ruling given in Opinion 113.—Opin. int. Gomm. zool. Nom. 1F pp. 73–86.Google Scholar
Hermann, J. F. (1804). Mémoire aptérologique.—144 pp. Strasbourg.Google Scholar
Hirst, S. (1912). Report on the mite causing copra itch.—J. trop. Med. Hyg. 15 pp. 374–375.Google Scholar
Hughes, A. M. (1948). The mites associated with stored food products.—168 pp. London, Minist. Agric.Google Scholar
Mayer, H. F. & Hack, W. H. (1953). Redescripción e investigaciones biológicas sobre Tyroglyphus longior Gerv., 1844 (Acarina).—An. Inst. Med. reg. 3 pp. 283–291.Google Scholar
Mayr, E., Linsley, E. G. & Usinger, R. L. (1953). Methods and principles of systematic zoology.—328 pp. New York, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Michael, A. D. (1903). British Tyroglyphidae. Vol. 2.—London, Ray Soc.Google Scholar
Nesbitt, H. H. J. (1945). A revision of the family Acaridae (Tyroglyphidae), order Acari, based on comparative morphological studies. Part I. Historical, morphological and general taxonomic studies.—Canad. J. Res. (D) 23 pp. 139–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odum, E. P. & Odum, H. T. (1959). Fundamentals of ecology.—2nd edn., 546 pp. Philadelphia, Pa., Saunders.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. (1893). A new mite infecting mushrooms.—Science 22 p. 360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oudemans, A. C. (1906). Acari. [In] Wichmann, C. E. A.Ed. Résultats de l'Expédition scientifique Neérlandaise à la Nouvelle-Guinée en 1903 5 livr. 1 pp. 101–162.—Leiden, Brill.Google Scholar
Oudemans, A. C. (1924 a). Acarologische aanteekeningen. LXXV–LXXVII.—Ent. Ber. 6 pp. 265–274, 300–310, 317–336.Google Scholar
Oudemans, A. C. (1924 b). [Nieuwste onderzoekingen in de groep der Tyroglyphidae, vulgo kaas-mijten.]—Tijdschr. Ent. 67 pp. xxii–xxviii.Google Scholar
Oudemans, A. C. (1926). Acarologische aanteekeningen. LXXXIII.—Ent. Ber. 7 pp. 144–147.Google Scholar
Rice, E. B. (1948). Queensland cheese production.—Qd agric. J. 66 pp. 107–111.Google Scholar
Robertson, P. L. (1946). Tyroglyphid mites in stored products in New Zealand.—Trans, roy. Soc. N.Z. 76 pp. 185–207.Google Scholar
Robertson, P. L. (1952). Cheese mite infestation: an important storage problem.—J. Soc. Dairy Tech. 5 pp. 86–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, P. L. (1959). A revision of the genus Tyrophagus, with a discussion on its taxonomic position in the Acarina.—Aust. J. Zool. 7 pp. 146–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G. G. & Roe, A. (1939). Quantitative zoology. Numerical concepts and methods in the study of recent and fossil animals.—414 pp. New York, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Solomon, M. E. (1957). Estimation of humidity with cobalt thiocyanate papers and permanent colour standards.—Bull. ent. Res. 48 pp. 489–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swan, D. C. (1936). Berlese's fluid: remarks upon its preparation and use as a mounting medium.—Bull. ent. Res. 27 pp. 389–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Den Bruel, W. E. (1940). Un ravageur de l'épinard d'hiver: Tyroglyphus dimidiatus Herm. (longior Gerv.).—Bull. Inst. agron. Gembloux 9 pp. 81–99.Google Scholar
Vitzthum, H. G. (1929). Ordnung: Milben, Acari.—Tierwelt Mitteleur. 3 Lief 3, 112 pp. Leipzig, Quelle & Meyer.Google Scholar
Volgin, V. I. (1948). New species of Acarina of the genus Tyrophagus Ouds., 1923 (Tyroglyphidae, Acarina). [In Russian.]—Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR (N.S.) 60 pp. 509–511.Google Scholar
Volgin, V. I. (1949). Material relating to the systematics of mites of the genus Tyrophagus Ouds., 1923 (Tyroglyphidae, Acarina).—[In Russian.]—Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR (N.S.) 65 pp. 385–388.Google Scholar
Womersley, H. (1941). Studies in Australian Acarina. (2.) Tyroglyphidae (s.l.).—Rec. S. Aust. Mus. 6 pp. 451–488.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, G. E. (1953). An ecological study of the insects and mites in the nests of certain birds in Britain.—Bull. ent. Res. 44 pp. 739–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zakhvatkin, A. A. (1941). Arachnoidea. Vol. VI no. 1. Acariens Tyroglyphoïdes. [In Russian with keys in French.]—Faune de l'URSS N.S. no. 28, 475 pp. Moscow, Acad. Sci. URSS.Google Scholar