Hatching of the winter eggs of the fruit-tree red spider mite (Panonychus ulmi (Koch))

Observations on the hatching of winter eggs of Panonychus ulmi (Koch) from apple orchards in England over the 5 years 1962-6 are described. Differences of 2–3 weeks between orchards in the date at which 50% hatch was reached were quite common and this was out of step with petal fall in the majority of orchards. There was a continuous range between early and late hatching populations and a tendency for the populations to hatch in the same order every year. In 1966 populations on Cox's Orange Pippin hatched earlier than those on Worcester Pearmain but the difference was unlikely to be of practical importance. Neither recording accumulated day degrees for populations hatched out-of-doors nor hatching in an incubator after chilling was considered to give a sufficiently reliable forecast of 50% hatch but observations in 1966 suggested that this might be predicted from the total eggs hatched in an incubator expressed as a percentage of total healthy eggs.