Page 15 - Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2008

New plant pests and weeds in Greece 67
ports of ornamental plants. This mite usu-
ally reduces growth and causes a pale yel-
low discoloration of the carnation plants.
Appropriate control method is the chem-
ical one.
Phytocoptella yuccae (Keifer) is a pest
of yucca plants. It was recorded for the first
time in Greece in the area of Lehonia (Vo-
los, Magnisia) in 1988 (Κoutroubas & Ba-
kogiannis, 1989). In the region of Attica it
was first observed in the early 90’s in many
glasshouses (Papaioannou-Souliotis, 1991).
As a result of mite infestation the upper
surface of leaves exhibits pale white fluffy
patterns that later turn brown.
The Bermuda grass mite Eriophyes cy-
nodoniensis Sayed can be a serious pest
wherever Bermuda grass ( Cynodon dacty-
lon L.) is grown as a turf grass. It is consid-
ered to be of African origin. In the United
States, the mite may be found from Flor-
ida to Arizona. Its only host plant is Ber-
muda grass. It was οobserved for the first
time in Greece, in Aliartos (Viotia), in Sep-
tember 2007 (Kapaxidi et al., 2008). Ini-
tial damage is observed in spring when
turf grass fails to begin normal growth
and shows yellow or brown patches in the
lawn. Shortening of the stem internodes
gives the plants a stunted, rosette appear-
ance. Under a heavy infestation the grass
turns brown and dies.
2.3. Tenuipalpidae
Raoiella macfarlanei Pritchard and
Baker was first recorded in Greece in olive
groves of the island of Corfu in 2002 (Pa-
padoulis & Εmmanouel, 2002). This mite
can cause discoloration and deformation
of leaves.
2.4. Concluding remarks
Two species of the family Tetranychi-
dae, six of the family Eriophyidae and one
of the family Tenuipalpidae have been re-
ported for the first time in Greece since
1990. The tetranychid species E. orientalis
and T. evansi constitute the most alarming
cases not only because they affect impor-
tant crops such as citrus and vegetables,
respectively, but also because the climatic
conditions in southern Greece are appro-
priate for their population establishment.
E. orientalis and T. evansi can develop rap-
idly in favorable conditions, while data
on their ability to develop pesticide resis-
tance are lacking.
3. Plant parasitic nematodes
Several species of plant parasitic nema-
todes can be found in cultivated and non-
cultivated soils in Greece. Nematode ex-
tractions from soil samples deriving from
nurseries and other plantations frequent-
ly yield moderate to very low populations
of Criconemoides, Helicotylenchus, Longi-
dorus, Paratylenchus, Pratylenchus , (Para)
Trichodorus, Tylenchorhynchus, Tylenchus
and Xiphinema species, however these
do not appear to cause serious damage
to plants and in most instances are not
treated. Thirty species, most of which are
worldwide considered important pests,
have been reported from Greek soils since
1990. All were found inhabiting cultivated
plants and are discussed in the text below,
while being summarised alphabetically in
Table 3. Amongst the above, reference is
made to ten species that have occasional-
ly been found inhabiting plant roots, but
are not considered to have a serious eco-
nomic impact.
Globodera pallida Stone 1973 is one
of the two potato cyst nematode (PCN)
species. A first indication of its presence
was reported by Vovlas & Grammatikaki in
1989 from the island of Crete but this was
not confirmed until 2007. A second study
performed in Crete showed the presence
of only G. rostochiensis (Tzortzakakis et al.,
2004) and only very recently, Karanastasi
& Manduric (unpublished data) confirmed