Astigmatid mites can be used as prey for mass rearing of phytoseiid predators, but also as a supplemental food source to support predator populations in crops. Here we evaluated the potential of six species of astigmatid mites (living or frozen) as alternative food for the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot in greenhouse crops. All prey mites tested were suitable for predator oviposition. In general, oviposition was greater when prey mites were reared on dog food with yeast than when they were reared on wheat bran with yeast. Amongst prey items provided as frozen diet, larvae of Thyreophagus entomophagus (Laboulbene), Acarus siro L. and Lepidoglyphus destructor (Schrank) that had been reared on dog food with yeast, resulted in the highest oviposition rates of A. swirskii. T. entomophagus larvae as frozen diet resulted in the shortest preimaginal developmental time of A. swirskii. On chrysanthemum plants, we found that the greatest increase in predator density occurred when living mites of T. entomophagous were used as a food source. This increase was greater than when predators were fed cattail pollen, a commonly used supplemental food. Effects on predators of providing living A. siro and L. destructor, or frozen larvae of T. entomophagous as food, were comparable with provision of pollen. Use of supplemental food in crops can be a risk if it is also consumed by omnivorous pests such as western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande. However, we showed that both frozen and living mites of T. entomophagous were unsuitable for thrips oviposition. Hence, we believe that provision of prey mite species increases A. swirskii density, supporting biological control of thrips and other pests in greenhouse crops.

象鼻螨可以用作大规模捕食植物性捕食者的猎物，也可以作为补充食物来源以支持农作物中的捕食者种群。在这里，我们评估了温室作物中六种散光螨（活的或冷冻的）作为捕食性螨Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot的替代食品的潜力。所有测试的pre螨都适合捕食者的产卵。总的来说，与狗一起喂食麦片的情况下，将酵母与狗粮一起喂食时，产卵的情况要好于酵母。在作为冷冻饮食提供的猎物中，食虫性甲状腺球菌（Laboulbene）的幼虫，西罗螨（Acarus siro L.）和鳞翅目天蛾（Lepidoglyphus）的破坏物（Schrank）用酵母在狗粮中饲养，导致A. swirskii的产卵率最高。T. entomophagus幼虫冰冻饮食导致的最短preimaginal发育时间A. swirskii。在菊花植物上，我们发现，当食虫T的生活螨虫被用作食物来源时，捕食者密度的增加最大。这一增加幅度大于捕食者喂食香蒲花粉（一种常用的辅助食品）时的增幅。对提供活的A. siro和L. destructor的捕食者的影响，或食虫的冷冻幼虫。作为食物，可与提供花粉媲美。如果杂食性害虫（如西部花朵蓟马，西花蓟马（Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande））也食用补充性食品，则可能会有风险。然而，我们发现，食虫的冷冻和活体螨虫都不适合蓟马产卵。因此，我们认为，提供捕食螨增加了A. swirskii的密度，支持了温室作物中蓟马和其他害虫的生物防治。