Feeding lifestyles of the Phytoseiidae revisited: searching for a factitious rearing host for Neoseiulus fallacis (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

Several mite species from the Phytoseiidae (Acari) have been successfully developed as products for augmentative biological control. Rearing of mites using factitious prey in grain-based systems can increase the efficiency of production of phytoseiids. This has been done successfully for several species but usually for Type III (generalist predator) phytoseiids. Neoseiulus fallacis (Garman) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is a Type II phytoseiid (prefers spider mites) that is currently reared in British Columbia (Canada) on Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) in a plant-based system. Here, we present feeding behaviour and predation data for N. fallacis on T. urticae and three Astigmatid (Acari) mites: Lepidoglyphus destructor (Schrank) (Acari: Glycyphagidae), Aleuroglyphus ovatus (Tropeau) (Acari: Acaridae) and Thyreophagus entomophagus (Laboulbène) (Acari: Acaridae). Our objective is to identify a candidate factitious host for mass rearing of N. fallacis. Although N. fallacis grabbed prey mites of all four species, successful feeding attempts were more frequent for the native host, T. urticae, than for the three Astigmatid species. N. fallacis rejected A. ovatus and T. entomophagus as hosts more often than T. urticae. In predation trials, N. fallacis fed at the highest rate on T. urticae, at an intermediate rate on L. destructor, and at the lowest rates on A. ovatus and T. entomophagus. For the three mites tested, L. destructor is the most promising species for further development as a factitious host for N. fallacis.