The old world date mite,
Oligonychus afrasiaticus
(McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae) is a severe spider mite pest of date palm in most of the Middle East and North Africa. Considering that nothing is known about the performance of phytoseiid predators against
O. afrasiaticus
, biology, predation, and life table parameters of
Cydnoseius negevi
(Swirski and Amitai) and
Neoseiulus barkeri
Hughes (Acari: Phytoseiidae), collected from date palm orchards, were studied under laboratory conditions (25, 35°C and 35 ± 10% RH) as a first step to understand their effectiveness against all mobile life stages of
O. afrasiaticus
. For both predators, oviposition period was significantly shorter at 35°C than at 25°C. The following parameters were obtained for
C. negevi
and
N. barkeri
at 25 and 35°C, respectively: female longevity, 31.8, 20.1, 35.7, 27.4 d; fecundity, 21.6, 38.0, 18.8, 34.8 eggs per female; oviposition period, 23.9, 13.7, 25.9, 18.1 d. Total predation of
C. negevi
and
N. barkeri
female was 246.0, 270.0, 227.6, 205.3 prey at 25 and 35°C, respectively. Rectal plugs were observed attached to the opisthosoma of some adult females of
N. barkeri
, which often cause the mite to stick to the surface. Life table parameters were estimated as net reproductive rate (
R0
) 10.44, 17.35, 10.19, 13.84, intrinsic rate of increase (
rm
) 0.14, 0.19, 0.13, 0.16 d
−1
, finite rate of increase (λ) 1.15, 1.21, 1.12, 1.17 d
−1
, generation time (
T
) 17.03, 15.17, 17.83, 16.61 d, doubling time (DT) 04.95, 03.64, 05.33, 04.33 d for
C. negevi
and
N. barkeri
at 25 and 35°C, respectively. The values of intrinsic rate of increase and net reproductive rate were higher in
C. negevi
than
N. barkeri
at both temperature regimes. Therefore, it could be concluded that
C. negevi
performance was better than
N. barkeri
against
O. afrasiaticus
and can be considered as a valuable addition to the existing methods for spider mites control.
