Prey stage preference and functional response of Euseius hibisci to Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Phytoseiidae, Tetranychidae)

Abstract

The aims of this study were: (a) determine the prey stage preference of female Euseius hibisci (Chant) (Phytoseiidae) at constant densities of different stages of Tetranychus urticae Koch (Tetranychidae), (b) assess the functional response of the predator females to the varying densities of eggs, larvae, or protonymphs of T. urticae, and (c) estimate the functional response of E. hibisci when pollen of Ligustrum ovalifolium was present as well. We conducted experiments on excised pieces of strawberry leaf arenas (Fragaria ananassa) under laboratory conditions of 25+/-2 degrees C, 60+/-5% RH and 12 h photophase. Our results indicated that the predator consumed significantly more prey eggs than other prey stages. Consumption of prey deutonymphs and adults was so low that they were excluded from the non-choice functional response experiments. The functional response on all food items was of type II. The two parameters of the functional response were estimated for each prey type by means of the adjusted non-linear regression model. The highest estimated value a' (instantaneous rate of discovery) and the lowest value of Th (handling time, including digestion) were found for the predator feeding on prey eggs, and a' was lowest and Th highest when fed protonymphs. Using the jack-knife method, the values for the functional response parameters were estimated. The values of a' and Th produced by the model were similar among all prey types except for the eggs, which were different. Using pollen simultaneously with prey larvae decreased the consumption of the latter over the full range of prey densities The suitability of this predator for biological control of T. urticae on strawberry is discussed.

Prey-stage preferences and functional and numerical responses of Amblyseius largoensis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to Raoiella indica (Acari: Tenuipalpidae)

“…A type II response was also observed in the phytoseiids: Euseius concordis (Chant) and Phytoseius floridanus Muma (Sandness and McMurtry 1970), Phytoseiulu spersimilis Athias-Henriot, Galendromus occidentalis (Nesbitt) and Neoseiulus chilenensis (Laing and Osborn 1974); Amblyseius longispinosus (Zhang et al 1999); P. persimilis, G. occidentalis (Nesbitt), and Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) (Xiao and Fadamiro 2010); Chileseius camposi González y Schuster (Sepulveda and Carrillo 2008); Euseius (Amblyseius) finlandicus and Amblyseius andersoni (Koveos and Broufas 2000); Euseius hibisci (Chant) (Badii et al 2004). However, all these examples used tetranychids as prey; in contrast, few studies have addressed the functional response of phytoseiid mites preying on tenuipalpids.…”

“…The predatory mite Amblyseius herbicolus (Chant) showed a type II functional response when feeding on B. phoenicis (Reis et al 2007). Euseius mesembrinus (Dean) showed the same type of response when feeding on Brevipalpus californicus (Banks) (Badii et al 2004). Even though type II responses seem to be common among phytoseiid species it is important to note that functional responses may change depending on the prey stage (Santos 1975), plant species (Skirvin and Fenlon 2001) and spatial distribution pattern of the prey (Ryoo 1986), among other factors.…”

Consumption rate and functional response of the predaceous mite Kampimodromus aberrans to two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae in the laboratory

“…The negative values obtained for the linear parameters (P 1 \ 0) and inverse density-dependence relationship between the proportion of prey consumed and the initial prey density on all prey stages tested were a good indicator for a Type II response. The functional response of other phytoseiid species such as Euseius hibisci (Chant), Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot, Galendromus occidentalis (Nesbitt), and Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) also fitted to a type-II response (Badii et al 2004;Xiao and Fadamiro 2010). An inverse density-dependence relationship between the proportion of prey consumed and the initial prey density with a Type II functional response indicates the demographically destabilization of the T. urticae population.…”

Evaluation of astigmatid mites as factitious food for rearing four predaceous phytoseiid mites (Acari: Astigmatina; Phytoseiidae)

“…The preference of phytoseiid mites for eggs and larvae compared to other prey stages is well known (Badii et al, 2004;Blackwood et al, 2001;Collier et al, 2007;Ibrahim and Rahman, 1997). Albuquerque and Moraes (2008) observed better performance of I. zuluagai when T. putrescentiae eggs were provided compared to all life stages combined and obtained an r m value of 0.11 females per female per day.…”