The Phytoseiid Mite, Phytoseiulus macropilis as a Biological Control Agent Against Tetranychid Mite Species in Egypt (Phytoseiidae-Tetranychidae)

Document Type : Original research articles

Authors

1 Plant Protec. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Suez Canal Univ., Ismailia, Egypt

2 Plant Protection Research Institute , Agri. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

Phytoseiulus macropilis (Banks) Phytoseiidae developed and oviposited when provided immature stages of Tetranychus cucurbitacearum (Sayed), Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein) and Oligonychus mangiferus (Rahman and Sapra) (Tetranychidae), as prey at 25±2°C and 65±5% R.H. It was significantly affected by food source but a slight difference was noticed between females and males. The efficiency of the predator increased as advanced in development. Also, it developed faster (5.97 days for females and 5.38 days for males), lived longer (44.51 and 37.44 days for females and males, respectively and gave highest egg production (62.82 eggs) when fed on T. cucurbitacearum immatures. The number consumed of each prey predator female was significantly greater than that consumed by male. During the adult longevity the predator consumed higher numbers of T. cucurbitacearum (191.39 individuals / female and 158.76 individuals / male), than those of O. mangiferus (180.97 and 150.13 individuals for each sex, respectively.

Keywords

Main Subjects