Biologia 67/3: 546—560, 2012 Section Zoology DOI: 10.2478/s11756-012-0025-x Measuring the host specificity of plant-feeding mites based on field data – a case study of the Aceria species Anna Skoracka1 &Lechoslaw Kuczynski´ 2 1Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61–614 Pozna´n, Poland; e-mail:
[email protected] 2Department of Avian Biology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umul- towska 89, 61–614 Pozna´n, Poland; e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: For the majority of eriophyoid species, host ranges have been established purely on the basis of collection records, usually without quantitative data. The aim of this study was to: (1) quantitatively examine published literature to explore whether relevant analyses of field-collected quantitative data were used to assess host specificity of herbivores; (2) propose a protocol for data analysis that could be applied to plant-feeding mites; (3) analyse host specificity of the grass-feeding Aceria species as a case study. Field data were collected in Central and Northern Europe over a period of 11 years, and included 73 grass species. For the eight Aceria species found, infestation parameters and host specificity indexes were assessed. Accumulation curves were calculated to study how the sampling effort influenced estimates of host specificity indexes. A literature analysis showed that among the studies that declared an aim of estimating the host range only 56% of them applied any quantitative analysis or informed on estimation reliability. The analysis of field-collected data and its interpretation showed the most complete and reliable conclusions about the host specificity of Aceria species when all indices were considered and, if available, other information about the mite’s ecology and biology.