A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN SOME PREDATORY MITE SPECIES OF PHYTOSEIID MITES TO DETERMINE ITS ABILITY TO SURVIVE WITH OR WITHOUT WATER

The three different life styles phytoseiid predatory mite species, Phytoseiulus macropilis (Banks), Amblyseius californicus (McGregor) and A. cucumeris (Oudemans) were observed to investigate their ability to survive without food, young females were caged individually in the absence of prey, either with or without water. In general, the female survival time with water was four to six and half times as long as the survival times without water regardless of the species. In the survival experiment without water, P. macropilis and A. cucumeris both lived shorter than A. californicus. In the survival experiment with water, A. californicus lived nearly 2 times longer than P. macropilis or A. cucumeris. Amblyseius californicus females showed a strong capacity to survive without food, which could be an important factor contributing to the persistence of A. californicus in comparison to other phytoseiids.