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Blattisocius keegani (Mesostigmata: Ascidae) is a predatory mite that hastraditionally been studied as a biological control agent in stored products.The developmental time (incubation period, life cycle and longevity), fecundityand food consumption of the predatory mite B. keegani (Fox) (Ascidae)were investigated at 25 and 35°C and 75% R.H when fed on the two astigmatidmites, Rhizoglyphus echinopus and Lepidoglyphus destructor.Theincubation period of B. keegani was not affected when fed on the preysat tested temperature. The duration of life cycle for both sexes of B.keegani was obviously affected by the type of food employed at differenttemperature. The longest period lasted 12.6 days when predatory females fed on R.echinopus larvaeat 25oC, but the shortest period recorded on L. destructor larvae at35oC for predator males was 10.22 days.The female longevity of B. keegani was also affectedwhen the predator fed on the two tested preys at two temperature, as the maximum longevity was 26.7 days for female at 25oC on R. echinopuslarvae, and the minimum corresponding period was 16.54 days for male on L. destructor at 25oC. Theadult female of B. keegani laid the highest number of eggs (41.6)when fed on R. echinopus at 35oC, while the lowest number of eggs was observedwhen fed on L. destructor larvae (35.4 eggs) at 25oC. The food consumption of the different predator stagesincreased with its growth. The larval stage of both female and male had theleast prey consumption than the other stages (protonymph and deutonymph) andthe predator male individuals consumed lower number of introduced prey than thefemale individuals. The total amount of consumed prey individuals duringthe whole life span was 88.9 larvae of R. echinopus at 25oC, changed torecord 98.0 preys at 35oC, while, the number of devoured L. destructorwas 81.6 and 87.2 prey at 25 and 35oC, respectively. The B. keeganimale devoured 80.0 & 85.0 larvae of R. echinopus and 74.8 & 80.7larvae of L. destructor at 25 and 35oC., respectively. |
