Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of diet on the biology of the phytoseiid mite,
Euseius finlandicus (Oudemans). The predatory mite was able to develop and reproduce better when fed on the eriophyid mites,
Aceria olivi (Zaher and Abou-Awad),
Aceria dioscoridis (Soliman and Abou-Awad) and
Cisaberoptus kenyae (Keifer). The developmental time of immature stages was the shortest when fed on motile stages of eriophyid mite species, followed by the spider mite,
Tetranychus urticae Koch, and then pollen grains of
Ricinus communis L.,
Phoenix dactylifera L. and
Helianthus annuus L. Total egg production was highest when the predator fed on
A. olivi,
A. dioscoridis and
C. kenyae recording at the rate of 51.0 50.0 and 43.84 eggs/female, respectively, but lowest on pollen grains,
R. communis,
P. dactylifera and
H. annuus at the rate of 11.96, 5.3 and 2.0 eggs/female, respectively. But, the reproduction was nil on the tetranychid mite,
T. urticae. Also, sex ratio of the progeny favoured females, when the predatory mite was reared on the eriophyid preys.
E. finlandicus recorded the highest intrinsic rate of increase (
rm?=?0.31 females/female/day) when fed on
A. dioscoridis, followed by (0.30 and 0.23 females/female/day) when fed on
A. olivi and
C. kenyae, respectively. In contrast, the lowest intrinsic rate of increase (
rm?=??0.31) was noted when fed on
H. annuus pollen grains. The eriophyid mite, as a prey, recorded the shortest developmental time and highest oviposition rate of
E. finlandicus.
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