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April 2012. A request from Papua New Guinea on the gall mite of sweet potato.
In 2009, images of gall mite were sent to Pestnet, and a summary of the short discussion is at: Crops/Rootstubers/Sweetpotato/Mites/Gallmites,Eriophyessp,PNG
It is one of those problems that needs research. There are probably varietal differences, but no one is sure, and the biology of the mites has not been researched in detail. The problem was first seen in the Waghi valley in the 1990s.
A mite expert from New Zealand added this:
Eriophyes gastrotrichus is known to attack sweet potato, causing irregular-shaped outgrowths on leaves and stems. See, Sweetpotato: Major Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Disorders for a description of this species from PNG producing pocket galls. This book advises only cultural methods – good sanitation and killing weeds.
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=iye3nMg0vX4C&dq=Eriophyes+gastrotrichus&sourc
e=gbs_navlinks_s
There was an offer to identify preserved specimens.
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