Life history of the predatory mite Lasioseius athiasae (Acari, Ascidae) onvarious kinds of food substances: a polypeptide analysis of prey consideration

The predacious ascid mite Lasioseius athiasae Nawar and Nasr was found in a ssociation with herbaceous plants, fallen leaves and in debris under decidu ous fruit trees. The larvae fed and developed on different prey, such as 'm otile stages of the eriophyid grass mite Aceria dioscoridis (Soliman and Ab ou-Awad), eggs of house By Musca domestica L., nymphs of the two-spotted sp ider mite Tetraychus urticae Koch, and eggs of the root-knot nematode Meloi dogyne incognita Chitwood. Eriophyids of grasses caused the immature stages to develop faster than did other prey. During the oviposition period, dail y consumtion by a female of L. athiasae was 97 A. dioscoridis. four M. dome stica eggs, and 10 T. urticae nymphs. The average number of eggs/female per day was 3.31, 1.63 and 1.26 for the above-mentioned prey, respectively. A low rate was recorded on M. incognita eggs (0.35). The intrinsic rate of in crease (rm) was increased when fed on A. dioscoridis. but decreased an othe r prey species. The multiplication per generation (R-o) was 44.73 times in a generation time( T) of 17.92 days when fed on eriophyids. The eriophyid g rass mite proved to be the more suitable prey. The polypeptide analysis of different prey revealed that A. dioscoridis the most important contents in both number (11 polypeptides) or total molecular weight (682 kDa).