Predator potential and prey stage preference of Neoseiulus longispinosus (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to life stages of Tetranychus urticae and T. macfarlanei (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Spider mites are considered as a potential threat to varying agricultural crops across the globe. Among the agriculturally important spider mite species, Tetranychus urticae Koch and Tetranychus macfarlanei Baker and Pritchard severely affect crop production and incur heavy yield loss in agriculture sector. As an ecofriendly pest management strategy, biocontrol using phytoseiid predatory mites are gaining significant attention over the past few decades. Evaluation of predatory potential and prey stage preference could provide invaluable information on the predatory efficiency of any predators. Feeding experiments were conducted using the phytoseiid predatory mite, Neoseiulus longispinosus (Evans) on mulberry leaf discs under the laboratory conditions of 30±2ºC, 70±5% Relative Humidity (RH) and a photoperiod of 11 L: 14 D h. After 24 hr of feeding experiment, the nymph and adult female predator exhibited a significant preference in feeding towards the eggs of T. urticae and T. macfarlanei. The larval stage of the predator was found to be non-feeding, thus excluded from the feeding experiment. The order of feeding preference of adult female predator towards different life stages of both the spider mite species were identified as egg>nymph>larva>adult. On the contrary, the predatory nymphal stage exhibited different trend in feeding preference towards the life stages of T. urticae and could be recorded as egg>larva>nymph>adult. For T. macfarlanei, the same could be found as egg>larva=nymph>adult. Surprisingly, irrespective of the life stage differences, N. longispinosus hardly consumed any of the T. macfarlanei adults.