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Can supplementary food (pollen) modulate the functional response of a generalist predatory mite (Neoseiulus cucumeris) to its prey (Tetranychus urticae)?

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Abstract

In augmentative biocontrol, more generalists are being investigated for their potential in pest control. Although other food sources such as supplementary food may enhance the survival of generalists, whether they will affect their predation capacity is still an open question. Here, we investigated the influence of Typha orientalis pollen on the predation rates and functional response of Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to immature Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae). Pollen did lead to a decrease in predation rate of the predator in the short-term test. However, N. cucumeris displayed a type II functional response to immature T. urticae, with high predation rates on eggs and larvae irrespective of the presence of pollen. Pollen also did not have a significant negative influence on the attack rate and handling time of the predators. These findings suggest that N. cucumeris can be an efficient predator of immature T. urticae even when pollen is available.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr Ray Prebble of Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (New Zealand) for revising and reviewing the early draft of this manuscript and Dr Tingting Li of Southwest University (China) for advice on statistics. Comments by two anonymous reviewers and two editors of BioControl also improved the final version. Guang-Yun Li was supported by a PhD scholarship from the China Scholarship Council. Zhi-Qiang Zhang was funded in part by New Zealand Government core funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science and Innovation Group.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Entomology and Pest Control Engineering, College of Plant Protection, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, People’s Republic of China

    Guang-Yun Li

  2. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, 231 Morrin Road, Auckland, New Zealand

    Guang-Yun Li & Zhi-Qiang Zhang

  3. Centre for Biodiversity & Biosecurity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Zhi-Qiang Zhang

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  1. Guang-Yun Li
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The manuscript is original and none of the material has been published or is under consideration elsewhere, including the Internet. We have no related manuscripts submitted to other journals. The experiments used arthropods cultured in accordance with institutional guidelines.

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Li, GY., Zhang, ZQ. Can supplementary food (pollen) modulate the functional response of a generalist predatory mite (Neoseiulus cucumeris) to its prey (Tetranychus urticae)?. BioControl 65, 165–174 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-019-09993-7

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