Influence of Humidity on Mortality and Rate of Development of Immature Stages of the Grain-Infesting Mite <i>Tyrophagus castellanii</i> (Hirst) (Acarina: Acaridae) Reared on Mould Cultures

Rivard, I.

doi:10.4039/ent90721-12

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…This mycelium would act as shelter for the mites to avoid water loss under dry environments. Also, the water content of the fungi employed by Rivard (1958bRivard ( , 1959Rivard ( , 1961 is much higher than that found in the Brewer's yeast flakes of our study, as they are living organisms. Moreover, the composition of the substrate employed to rear the fungi was wheat germ powder and water (Rivard 1958a), which further increases the moisture content.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 57%

“…The comparison of our results with those obtained by Rivard (1958bRivard ( , 1959Rivard ( , 1961 and Cunnington (1969) on T. putrescentiae could serve to show how mites are able to counteract low humidity environments with feeding and behavioural strategies. Thus, whereas we have recorded a relative humidity of 70% to kill all immature stages of T. putrescentiae, these authors reported that it was necessary to reduce the relative humidity to 60% to eliminate the immature stages of this mite.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

“…These differences could be due to different susceptibility to environmental conditions of various strains of the same species of mite, as it has been observed in house dust mites (Colloff 1987;Pike et al 2005), but also to the phenomena described by Cutcher (1973). Rivard (1958bRivard ( , 1959Rivard ( , 1961) employed a fungal diet in his experiments and pointed out that it was necessary to remove part of the fungal mycelium from the rearing cells when its growth was too plentiful. This mycelium would act as shelter for the mites to avoid water loss under dry environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Nevertheless, there is no report to our knowledge about the effect of this physical agent on T. neiswanderi and A. farris. In addition, the range of methodologies used to study the effect of this factor on T. putrescentiae (Rivard 1958b(Rivard , 1959(Rivard , 1961Cunnington 1969Cunnington , 1976 makes it difficult to compare and extrapolate from their data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Different authors have focused on the effect of relative humidity on development and life history parameters of several astigmatid mites including T. putrescentiae (Rivard 1958b(Rivard , 1959(Rivard , 1961Cunnington 1969Cunnington , 1976Cutcher 1973), A. siro L. (Cunnington 1976(Cunnington , 1985, Lepidoglyphus destructor (Schrank) (Danielsen et al 2004), Tirolichus casei Oudemans (Nangia and ChannaBasavanna 1989), Dermatophagoides farinae Hughes (Arlian et al 1998(Arlian et al , 1999a, D. pteronyssinus (Trouessart) (Colloff 1987;Arlian et al 1998;Pike et al 2005) or Euroglyphus maynei (Cooreman) (Arlian et al 1998). Nevertheless, there is no report to our knowledge about the effect of this physical agent on T. neiswanderi and A. farris.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of relative humidity on development, fecundity and survival of three storage mites

2007

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The developmental rate of immature stages and the reproduction of adults of Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank), T. neiswanderi Johnston and Bruce and Acarus farris (Oudemans) were examined at 70, 80 and 90% r.h. and a constant temperature of 25 degrees C. At 70% r.h., T. putrescentiae and A. farris immature stages failed to reach the protonymph stage as 100% of the larvae died, whereas T. neiswanderi was able to complete development. The developmental time of all immature stages for the three species was significantly increased as relative humidity was reduced. The mobile stages were particularly susceptible, as the time needed to complete their development at lower relative humidities suffered greater increases than the egg stage. At 70% r.h., T. putrescentiae and A. farris were not able to lay eggs and only 24% of T. neiswanderi pairs were fertile. The reproductive parameters of the three species at the relative humidities at which they were able to lay eggs showed significant differences, except for the percentage of fertile mating at 80 and 90% r.h. As relative humidity increased, preoviposition period was reduced and fecundity and daily fecundity was increased, whereas the oviposition period showed different patterns for the three species. The intrinsic rate of increase (r ( m )) of T. neiswanderi at 70% r.h. was negative indicating that, at these conditions, mite populations of this species will diminish until they disappear. As relative humidity increased from 80 to 90% r.h. this parameter was almost twofold for both Tyrophagus species. The r ( m ) obtained for A. farris at 90% r.h. was similar to that of T. neiswanderi at the same humidity while at 80% r.h. it was very small so that the population doubling time was more than 84 days. The influence of relative humidity on biology of these mites and its practical application as control measure are discussed.

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