Not Seeing the Mites for the Hairs. Comment on Möth et al. Unexpected Effects of Local Management and Landscape Composition on Predatory Mites and Their Food Resources in Vineyards. Insects 2021, 12, 180

Abstract

Möth et al. (2021) [...]

Reply to Schausberger, P. Not Seeing the Mites for the Hairs. Comment on “Möth et al. Unexpected Effects of Local Management and Landscape Composition on Predatory Mites and Their Food Resources in Vineyards. Insects 2021, 12, 180”

“…This is a reply to the comment from Schausberger [1] who commented on our work "Unexpected effects of local management and landscape composition on predatory mites and their food resources in vineyards" [2].…”

“…We must clarify that the leaf morphology was not neglected in our work and that we are fully aware of the possible effect of leaf hairiness on mite communities inhabiting grape vines, especially phytoseiid mites [4,5] as quoted by Schausberger [1]. During the implementation of the study design we did not explicitly select the vineyards considering leaf morphology [2].…”

“…During the implementation of the study design we did not explicitly select the vineyards considering leaf morphology [2]. Like Schausberger [1], we considered the leaf hairiness as a possible additional explanatory variable. According to our own unpublished data [6,7] from 75 grapevine cultivars in Germany under uniform management, only the OIV descriptor "prostate hairs between the veins" can be correlated with the abundance of Typhlodromus pyri Scheuten on the vine leaves.…”

“…Briefly, Schausberger stated that we neglected the factor leaf morphology and its impact on mite communities on grapevines and did not consider it in our study design and analysis [1]. Schausberger analysed the possible impact of the hairiness of the grape leaf underside using Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV) descriptors [3] and calculated a questionable summated index for prostrate and erect hairs as two additional explanatory variables and created these new variables with our dataset [1].…”

“…Briefly, Schausberger stated that we neglected the factor leaf morphology and its impact on mite communities on grapevines and did not consider it in our study design and analysis [1]. Schausberger analysed the possible impact of the hairiness of the grape leaf underside using Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV) descriptors [3] and calculated a questionable summated index for prostrate and erect hairs as two additional explanatory variables and created these new variables with our dataset [1]. To calculate the index for prostrate and erect hairs, Schausberger gathered through a short email communication the information on sampled vine varieties (see also [2]) which we provided via a publicly accessible database (https://zenodo.org/record/4562219#.YKYzPKgzZPY, accessed on 20 July 2021) (see also [1]).…”