Center for Agribusiness Biotechnology Research, University of Almería, La Cañada de San Urbano, s/n, S04120, Almería, Spain.
Department of Ecology and Quality Control, University Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
Exp Appl Acarol. 2022 Aug;87(4):325-335. doi: 10.1007/s10493-022-00739-2. Epub 2022 Aug 19.
Predatory mite species (Acari: Phytoseiidae) are essential tools in the biological control of greenhouses pests. The natural enemies can be released directly into a crop. A better, partly preventive system is to place slow-release sachets on the plants. Inside such sachets is a factitious prey's food substrate-which also acts as refuge-and the predator. The objective of this study was to develop a new methodology to evaluate the population dynamics of this sachet system, based on the factitious prey Carpoglyphus lactis and the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii. Through two tests carried out under laboratory conditions, the sachets were first compared to the traditional extraction method that uses Berlese-Tullgren funnels and an extraction method using flotation in hexane. The latter method proved more effective at sampling the motile states (larvae, nymphs, and adults), both for the predatory species and for the factitious prey, extracting up to 3.7 × more mites than the Berlese-Tullgren funnel. Second, the population dynamics of both mite species was studied in a laboratory test, both inside and outside the sachets. In this way, a positive correlation was demonstrated between the number of predatory mites and the number of prey mites inside the sachets. Conversely, no correlation was found between the interior population of predatory mites and the number that venture outside. We can conclude that hexane extraction is very useful both in quality control of predatory mites and in studying how the sachets behave when faced with various factors.
捕食螨物种（蜱螨目：植绥螨科）是温室害虫生物防治的重要工具。天敌可以直接释放到作物中。更好的、部分预防性系统是在植物上放置缓释小袋。这些小袋内是一种人造猎物的食物基质，也可以作为避难所和捕食者。本研究的目的是开发一种新的方法来评估这种小袋系统的种群动态，该系统基于人造猎物乳啮食螨和捕食性螨智利小植绥螨。通过在实验室条件下进行的两项测试，首先将小袋与传统的提取方法（使用贝尔莱塞-图尔格伦漏斗）和使用正己烷浮选的提取方法进行比较。后者方法在采样运动状态（幼虫、若虫和成虫）方面对捕食性物种和人造猎物更有效，提取的螨虫数量比贝尔莱塞-图尔格伦漏斗多 3.7 倍。其次，在实验室测试中研究了两种螨类在小袋内外的种群动态。通过这种方式，证明了在小袋内捕食性螨的数量与猎物螨的数量之间存在正相关关系。相反，在小袋内捕食性螨的内部种群与冒险外出的数量之间没有发现相关性。我们可以得出结论，正己烷提取在捕食性螨的质量控制和研究小袋在面对各种因素时的行为方面都非常有用。
