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Abstract
Parasitus bituberosus Karg (Acari: Parasitidae) is one of the predatory mite species inhabiting mushroom houses. It is known to accept a wide range of prey, suggesting that it may be a promising candidate for the biological control of key pests of mushroom culture. In our study it did not show any prey preference among four groups of small organisms often occurring in mushroom growth medium, namely rhabditid nematodes, pygmephorid mites, and sciarid and phorid fly larvae. Nevertheless, the type of food these predators fed on affects their development. The shortest egg-to-adult development time was obtained on a nematode diet. On a diet of phorid larvae, mite development stopped at the deutonymph stage; none reached adulthood. All other diets sufficed to reach the adult phase. Female fecundity when fed nematodes and sciarid larvae did not differ, but it was much lower when fed pygmephorid mites. Other life table parameters confirmed that pygmephorid mites constituted the worst diet for P. bituberosus. The highest intrinsic rate of population increase (r m = 0.34) was obtained on the nematode diet; when fed sciarid larvae and pygmephorid mites it was 0.25 and 0.14, respectively. Our study provides good reasons to further test P. bituberosus as biocontrol agent of especially sciarid flies and nematodes, especially when the compost is well colonized by mushroom mycelium (which retards nematode growth).
Highlights
The mushroom environment with its large amount of decaying organic material, mycelium and sporophores is favourable for many small animals
Frequency analysis did not show any differences in choice of particular food diets of females (v2 = 0.667; df = 3; P = 0.84) and deutonymphs (v2 = 0.857; df = 3; P = 0.88) of the predatory mite P. bituberosus
Predatory mites P. bituberosus were able to complete their life cycle on all the food diets except phorid fly larvae, for which no adult individuals were obtained during the experiments
Summary
The mushroom environment with its large amount of decaying organic material, mycelium and sporophores is favourable for many small animals. Mainly predatory mites, can feed on these pests, limiting their populations. Studies conducted in mushroom houses in Poland in the 1980s showed the occurrence of 19 mite species belonging to eight families. Parasitus consanguineus Oudemans and Voigts) was found in a few Polish mushroom houses (Szlendak and Lewandowski 2000). This species was first found in mushroom houses by Gill et al (1988) and Trivedi (1988). Another species of the Parasitidae family, Parasitus bituberosus Karg, was noted in cultivated mushroom beds by Binns (1973a) and Al-Amidi and Downes (1990)
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