USO DEL CEPILLO MECáNICO PARA EL CONTEO DE POBLACIONES DE Steneotarsonemus spinki SMILEY (ACARI: TARSONEMIDAE)

the mite steneotarsonemus spinki is found inside the leaf sheaths of rice. due to the difficult location and high population density that occur inside the leaf sheaths of rice, it is necessary to use an extraction method that facilitates the estimation of mite populations with less effort at the time of carrying it out. an experiment was conducted to demonstrate the efficient use of the mechanical brush from the bio quip products, through comparison with population levels estimated by direct count method under the stereo microscope. the absence of statistical difference between the population mean of s. spinki in the direct count method with respect to the mechanical brush, indicates that both methods are equally reliable for estimating populations of this phytophagous. furthermore, no significant difference was detected in the time spent in making the counts by both methods. the extraction method with the mechanical brush can be done by two persons, one to remove the mites using the brush and the other counting the mites in the petri dish under the stereo microscope, what would help to process more samples in the same period of time.