Government watchdog applies to itself to import insect pest

The Environmental Risk Management Authority, a Government watchdog on new organisms, has applied to itself for permission to import and release two taro mites.

Another government agency, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, makes Pacific Island taro exporters fumigate their shipments for the same mites, scientifically known as Rhizoglyphus minutus and Rhizoglyphus singularis.

Erma said in its latest newsletter The Bulletin that the application was under consideration.

Although the tiny spider-like mites are less than 1mm long, they are important in some countries as pests of food crops and other economically important crops, such as flower bulbs.

Some of the tiny pale mites have been intercepted in many shipments of taro imported to Auckland, and the taro has had to be fumigated, which added cost and reduced the shelf life of the taro, say exporters.

The Fiji-based Secretariat of the South Pacific Communities paid F$45,000 ($37,760) to survey mites in Auckland and examine the national reference collection of arthropods, apparently in an effort to show the mites were already in New Zealand and that fumigation was not necessary.

MAF also contributed funding to a study of the Rhizoglyphus mites on both sides of the Tasman by Landcare Research scientists.

More than 1840 Rhizoglyphus mite specimens of different stages were examined, and species descriptions completed for Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Oceania.

A total of 14,550 pieces of morphological data were collected to formally describe 11 species, including R minutus (from specimens recorded in Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa and Tonga), and R singularis Manson (from specimens in Fiji, India, Indonesia and Taiwan).

Rhizoglyphus minutus mites were detected in taro from Fiji and also taro from Niue, Samoa and Tonga, but the species was not found in field surveys of taro and other plants in Auckland.

But the re-examination of old specimens preserved in archival collections also found one from soil in which camellias had been growing in New Plymouth and the other from a laboratory plant in Palmerston North.

Landcare researchers said though it was unknown if the New Plymouth specimen was from a greenhouse or the field, there was scope for a reassessment of the quarantine significance of Rhizoglyphus minutus.

- NZPA