Spatial Dynamics of an Acarine Predator–Prey System: Typhlodromus pyri (Acari: Phytoseiidae) Preying on Panonychus ulmi (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Laboratory experiments showed that the mite predator Typhlodromus pyri (Scheuten) altered its searching behavior in response to chemical stimuli emitted or associated with European red mite (ERM), Panonychus ulmi (Koch), but did not respond similarly to stimuli from Tetranychus urticae (Koch). Study of the field distribution of T. pyri and ERM indicated the two populations mixed randomly. The apparently incongruent laboratory and field results were reconciled by comparing the searching behavior of T. pyri with the previously described searching behaviors of Phytoseiulus persimilis (Athias-Henriot) and Amblysieus potentillae (Garman) and by comparing the life history of ERM to that of T. urticae , the preferred prey of P. persimilis .