Life-history traits of the predaceous mite Kampimodromus aberrans (Oudemans) (Acarina: Phytoseiidae) on four different types of food

Abstract

The developmental time, survival, and fecundity of Kampimodromus aberrans were determined on four different food types, birch pollen ( Betula pendula ) alone; Tetranychus urticae ; T. urticae +birch pollen together and Amphitetranychus viennensis , at 25 ± 1 °C, 65 ± 10% RH, and 16:8 photoperiod under laboratory conditions. Total developmental time of K. aberrans females was 7.9, 10.1, 8.0, and 11.3 days on pollen, T. urticae , pollen + T. urticae , and A. viennensis , respectively. The mortality rate of immature stages of K. aberrans was highest when feeding on spider mites, especially for protonymph stages feeding on T. urticae (% 42 for both sexes). The mortality rate of K. aberrans feeding on pollen was lower than the mortality rate on the other food types. The total and daily egg production rates were the highest on T. urticae and pollen + T. urticae (18.9 and 0.9 eggs; 17.2 and 1.0 eggs, respectively). The total egg production was at its lowest on A. viennensis (5.9 eggs), while the daily egg production was lowest on pollen and A. viennensis (0.6 and 0.7 eggs). K. aberrans feeding on pollen had the highest intrinsic rate of increase, ( r m ), at 0.129 ♀/♀day, followed by 0.108 ♀/♀/day on pollen + T. urticae , while K. aberrans feeding on A. viennensis displayed the lowest at 0.067 ♀/♀/day. On T. urticae , the intrinsic rate of natural increase of K. aberrans was determined as 0.095 ♀/♀/day.