Functional response of the predatory mite, Typhlodromus bagdasarjani (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to protonymphs of Eotetranychus frosti (Acari: Tetranychidae) on four apple cultivars

Abstract

The functional response of natural enemies and their interactions may be affected by host plant characters. Functional response of the adult females of the predatory mite, Typhlodromus bagdasarjani Wainstein and Arutunjan to protonymphs of Eotetranychus frosti (McGregor) on four apple cultivars Imperial Gala, Kohanz Golab, Granny Smith and Lebanon Red was investigated. The protonymphs of E. frosti were offered to the adult female of the predator at densities of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 on apple leaf discs (4 cm<sup>2</sup>). The number and length of trichomes on the lower surface of each apple cultivar were measured. The highest and lowest number of trichomes were observed in Granny Smith and Kohanz Golab, respectively. Typhlodromus bagdasarjani adult females exhibited the type II functional response on E. frosti protonymphs regardless of apple cultivars. Also, the values of attack rate (a) and handling time (T<sub>h</sub>) were determined using the Rogers's type II model. Adult females of T. bagdasarjani had the highest attack rate (a) (0.0747 h<sup>1</sup>) and the shortest handling time (0.7005 h) on Kohanz Golab, and the lowest attack rate (0.0334 h<sup>1</sup>) and the longest handling time (1.1189 h) was on Granny Smith. The theoretical maximum predation rate (T/T<sub>h</sub>) on Kohanz Golab, Imperial Gala, Lebanon Red and Granny Smith were 34.26, 33.79, 26.85 and 21.45 prey/day, respectively. The estimated value of a/T<sub>h</sub> indicated that T. bagdasarjani was most effective against E. frosti on Kohanz Golab with lowest number of trichomes. The finding of this study shows that the predation and searching activity of the predator was affected by trichome density and length of the apple leaves.

Prey consumption capacity and functional response of Phytoseiulus persimilis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) feeding on Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae) on different cotton varieties

“…Similarly, Krips et al (1999) reported low searching efficiency of P. persimilis on gerbera varieties that had higher trichome density. Jafarian et al (2022) found that the attack rates of protonymphs of another phytoseiid mite Typhlodromus bagdasarjani Wainstein & Arutunjan fed Eotetranychus frosti (McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae) varied on different apple varieties. The authors reported more than two times higher attack rate on a low hairy cultivar (Kohanz Golab) compared to a high hairy cultivar (Granny Smith).…”

Experienced generation-dependent functional and numerical responses of Neoseiulus californicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae) long-term reared on thorn apple pollen

“…Functional response experiments have been frequently used to characterize and compare the effectiveness of biological control agents. These indicate that a Type II functional response is common in predators belonging to the family Phytoseiidae including: Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot (Fathipour et al 2020), Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) (Shipp andWhitfield 1991; Yazdanpanah et al 2022), Iphiseius degenerans Berlese (Eveleigh and Chant 1981), Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes (Jafari et al 2011), Galendromus occidentalis (Nesbitt) (Laing and Osborn 1974), Phytoseiulus longipes Evans (Badii and McMurtry 1988) and Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (Laing and Osborn 1974; Everson 1979; Eveleigh and Chant 1981; Skirvin and Fenlon 2001, N. californicus (Pereira de Sousa Neto et al 2019; Khanamani et al 2017; Ahn et al 2010; Cédola et al 2001, Typhlodromus bagdasarjani Wainstein & Arutunjan (Jafarian et al 2022). Our results confirmed the type II functional response of N. californicus to deutonymphs of T. urticae in five tested generations.…”