Cecidophyopsis ribis is an eriophyid mite which is best known for being a plant parasite, a pest of Ribes species, the genus that includes gooseberries and blackcurrants.

It feeds on the plants' buds, forming galls, and transmits a virus which causes blackcurrant reversion disease.

Inside the bud, between the closely folded leaves, are thousands of small, spherical eggs which later hatch into sausage-shaped mites with short legs near their anterior end.

The flowers also show symptoms, with the buds being less hairy than normal and, in a severe form of the disease present in Russia and Scandinavia, the sepals appearing to be doubled in number to ten.

Although spread of the mite can be prevented to some extent, badly affected bushes should be destroyed and replaced with virus-free stock.