<p class="HeadingRunIn"><strong>Prey consumption and functional response of <em>Neoseiulus</em> californicus and <em>Neoseiulus longispinosus</em> (Acari: Phytoseiidae) on <em>Tetranychus urticae</em> and <em>Tetranychus kanzawai </em>(Acari: Tetranychidae)</strong></p>

Abstract

Tetranychus urticae Koch and Tetranychus kanzawai Kishida are important pest mites of various crops of economic importance around the world. Prey consumption and functional responses of two species of phytoseiid mites on these two spider mites were evaluated at 25 ± 1°C, 65 ± 10% RH in the artificial climatic chamber with a photoperiod of 16 h light:8 h dark. The functional response of both Neoseiulus species was type II on three immature stages (egg, larva and protonymph) of Tetranychus species. The value of attack rate coefficients (α) of N. californicus to each stage of Tetranychus was greater than N. longispinosus, and the shortest handling time (T h ) was obtained on larvae followed by nymphs and eggs. The maximum attack rate (T/T h ) on eggs, larvae and nymphs of T. urticae was estimated to be 11. 87, 37.23 and 26.95 for N. californicus, and 18.43, 28.98 and 20.67 for N. longispinosus; the maximum attack rate (T/T h ) on eggs, larvae and nymphs of T. kanzawai was estimated to be 11.90, 42.97 and 39.60 for N. californicus, and 24.15, 31.60 and 24.45 for N. longispinosus. When different densities of prey were offered to the predators, more prey was consumed at higher prey densities, and interaction between prey stage and prey density was significant for N. californicus, but not significant for N. longispinosus. The ability of N. californicus preying on larvae and nymphs of both Tetranychus species was significantly greater than N. longispinosus at high prey densities, but N. longispinosus consumed more eggs than N. californicus.

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“…This type of response coincides with the results reported by Doker et al, (2016), Gotoh et al, (2004) and Song et al, (2016) (1985) and Xiao et al, (2013) mentioned that phytoseiid mites often prefer to feed on immature stages and eggs. On the other hand, Xiao and Fadamiro (2010), reported that N. californicus prefers nymphs over the eggs of P. citri; while Song et al, (2016) and Rezaie et al, (2017) expressed that N. californicus showed higher predation rate on T. urticae active stages than on the eggs. In the case of phytoseiids generalists, Blackwood et al, (2001), mention that spider larvae can be consumed more than eggs by nutritional benefits, as well as manipulation time, they observed that the females of several species of generalists often tried to unsuccessfully drill eggs before attacking the larvae.…”

Functional response of two Neoseiulus species preying on Tetranychus urticae Koch

“…When the sign of P 1 is negative, the predator displays a Type II functional response indicating that the proportion of prey consumed declines monotonically with the initial number of prey. When a positive densitydependent result for the proportion of prey consumed (P 1 > 0 and P 2 < 0) is obtained, the predator displays a Type III functional response (Juliano 2001;Song et al 2016).…”

“…Handling time is a good indicator of consumption rate and predator efficacy because it reflects the cumulative time required to capture and kill a prey (Ali et al 2011). Previous studies have indicated that N. californicus displays high predation rates on the larvae and nymphs of T. urticae (Song et al 2016), whereas N. cucumeris could develop to the adult stage when offered sufficient fresh eggs of T. urticae . To further understand the predatory abilities of N. cucumeris against the immature stages of T. urticae, and to assess the potential of the combined use of N. californicus and N. cucumeris for the control of T. urticae, we evaluated functional responses of these two Neoseiulus species against different life stages of T. urticae, both singly and when combined.…”

<p class="Body"><strong>Functional response of <em>Amblyseius andersoni </em>and <em>Neoseiulus neoreticuloides</em> (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to adults of the wolfberry gall mite <em>Aceria pallida </em>(Acari: Eriophyoidae)</strong></p>

“…A type II functional response is common in phytoseiid mites (Afshar & Latifi 2017;Alfaia et al 2018;Barbosa et al 2019). Phytoseiid predators with a type II functional response, such as Neoseiulus californicus McGregor, Neoseiulus cucumeris Oudemans, Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes and Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot, were proved to be efficient for control of pest organisms, especially at low prey densities (Koehler 1999;Jafari et al 2012;van Lenteren 2012;Calvo et al 2015;Song et al 2016;Patel and Zhang 2017;Akyazi & Liburd 2019;Bazgir et al 2020). The attack rate and handling time determine the magnitude of the functional response (Pervez & Omkar 2005).…”

“…Wolfberry, Lycium barbarum L. is used as a medicinal plant and food in China. The gall mite, Aceria pallida Keifer (Eriophyoidae) is an economically important phytophagous mite associated with wolfberry (Rong & Wang 1983;Wu et al 2017;Liu et al 2019b), in the major wolfberry production areas of China (Kuang 1983;Rong & Wang 1983;Zhang et al 2000;Wu et al 2017). Like most eriophyoid mites (Keifer et al 1982;Westphal & Manson 1996), A. pallida caused the gall formation on the plant and other abnormalities resulting in loss of plant growth (Wu et al 2017).…”