Biological and life table parameters of Typhlodromus laurentii and Iphiseius degenerans (Acari, Phytoseiidae) fed on Panonychus citri and pollen of Oxalis pes-caprae under laboratory conditions

Abstract

Typhlodromus laurentii and Iphiseius degenerans are two generalist phytoseiid mites, broadly spread in the Mediterranean area, especially in citrus orchards. In the present work we report results on various biological and life table parameters of the two phytoseiids, fed on pollen of Oxalis pes-caprae and various stages of the tetranychid Panonychus citri. Iphiseius degenerans had the shortest post embryonic development (6.53 days), the highest oviposition rate (1.83 eggs/female/day) and the shortest mean time between eggs laid (0.55 day) on Oxalis pollen, whereas the two food types did not influence these parameters in T. laurentii. However, Oxalis pollen showed a positive effect on the survivorship of the latter phytoseiid, with a median life time (LT50) of 44.51 days, which was two times longer than that registered on prey with the same phytoseiid, and on both food types with I. degenerans. This latter species had a better performance on the pollen (rm = 0.243, λ = 1.275, Ro = 22.88, DT = 2.85) than on prey (rm = 0.182, λ = 1.199, Ro = 17.43, DT = 3.81). On the other hand, the pollen influenced the net reproductive rate (25.43 females/female) of T. laurentii positively but showed the same effect as the prey on the other demographic parameters. Our results improve knowledge on the feeding behaviour of the above mentioned phytoseiids on two food sources that could represent the main possibility to maintain a consistent population of these predators during winter. Moreover, both phytoseiids were shown to be good biocontrol candidates of P. citri populations.

Biology and life-table of Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) athenas (Acari: Phytoseiidae) fed with the Old World Date Mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…Typhlodromus (A.) athenas shows higher demographic parameter values in comparison to other phytoseiids belonging to the same genus, i.e., Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) laurentii Ragusa & Swirski [junior synonym of T. (T.) setubali Dosse] on Panonychus citri (McGregor) (at 25°C, r m = 0.158, λ = 1.171, Ro = 13.24) (Tsolakis et al 2016), Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri Scheuten on T. urticae (at 25°C, r m = 0.110, λ = 1.12, Ro = 11.5) (Puchalska and Kozak 2015), Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) bagdasarjani on T. urticae (at 25°C, r m = 0.129, λ = 1.14, Ro = 13.6) (Ganjisaffar et al 2011), T. (A.)…”

Screening of the Acaricidal Activity of Essential Oils against Panonychus citri (McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae)

“…To reduce the influence of traditional chemical pesticides, predatory natural enemies [14] and insect pathogenic microorganisms have been used for biological control of P. citri, such as some species of phytoseiid mites [15,16], predatory thrips [17] and Beauveria bassiana [18]. Besides, some natural products such as plant extracts and essential oils were also used to control pests [19].…”

Pollen as sole food source for two generalist predatory mite species (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

“…Alternative food sources such as the storage mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank) (Acari: Acaridae) have been widely used in the mass production of predatory mites (Huang et al 2013;Yazdanpanah et al 2022a;Moradi et al 2023). However, numerous phytoseiid species perform better on pollen (Van Rijn & Tanigoshi 1999;Massaro et al 2016;Tsolakis et al 2016;Liu & Zhang 2017;Moretti et al 2023), the nutritional value of which varies with plant species (Goleva & Zebitz 2013). Therefore, pollen grains can be used for the mass rearing of phytoseiid mites for augmentative biological control (Al-Shammery 2011; Massaro et al 2016;Figueiredo et al 2018), and to preserve their populations during periods of scarcity or absence of prey in conservation biological control programs (Van Rijn & Tanigoshi 1999;Moretti et al 2023).…”

“…However, numerous phytoseiid species perform better on pollen (Van Rijn & Tanigoshi 1999; Massaro et al . 2016; Tsolakis et al . 2016; Liu & Zhang 2017; Moretti et al .…”