Feeding behaviour of Scolothrips longicornis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) preying on Tetranychus turkestani (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Subject Areas : Plant Protection

Mehdi Gheibi ¹ , Ebrahim Soleymannejadian ²

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Received: 2008-08-31 Accepted : 2009-01-29 Published : 2009-12-22

Keywords:

Abstract :

Feeding behaviour of the Scolothrips longicornis Priesner preying on Tetranychus turkestani (Ugarov & Nikolski) was investigated by leaf - island method under laboratory conditions (26±1°C, 60±5% RH and photoperiod of L16: D8 hours). One starved female thrips consumed a mite’s egg, a first instar larva and a protonymph, a deutonymph and an adult female mite in 1.52, 2.63, 3.13, 7.93 and 15.5 minute respectively. The first instar larva of the thrips ate 10.1 eggs or 1.2 female mites, the second instar larva consumed 34.5 eggs or 4.7 female mites and the adult female ate 49.1 eggs or 11.7 adult females per day. The mated female with a prey consumption of 11.7 female mites had the highest appetite. The unmated females and males by daily consumption of respectively 7.3 and 6.2 females had no significant difference in their voracity. The daily mean voracity increased from 0.3 to 17.1 female mites per female thrips by increasing temperature from 5 to 40°C. The rate of feeding severely decreased at 45°C and it was almost equal to rate of feeding at 26°C. Switching behavior of the thrips by using Murdach model, in different proportion of two prey, T. turkestani and E. orientalis shown negative switching and more number of T. turkestani was consumed when the proportion increased. The results indicated that S. longicornis may be a suitable biological agent for suppression of the Tetranychidae mites.

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