Impact of feeding experiences on oviposition and sex allocation of Neoseiulus californicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae)
2021
Xie, Zhong-Qiu | Lv, Jia-Le | Wang, En-Dong | Xu, Xue-Nong
Feeding experiences of predators during immature and adult stages may impact females' reproduction. In the present study, we investigated reproductive performances of Neoseiulus californicus when both parents had different feeding experiences on Tetranychus urticae and Frankliniella occidentalis. Female and male immatures fed on either prey species. Each newly emerged female adult individually mated with a male had either the same or different feeding experience. Prey for mated females were either same as or different from that consumed during their immature stages. Therefore, eight reproductive treatments were created. The highest cumulative fecundity (57.5±3.3 eggs/female) was observed when both female and male fed on T. urticae with the lowest fecundity (34.2±2.7 eggs/female) observed when the parents fed on F. occidentalis. Daily fecundity and oviposition duration were mainly affected by prey of mated females. Mated females preyed on T. urticae had 56.6% higher daily fecundity and 22.3% shorter oviposition duration than those preyed on F. occidentalis. No significant difference in offspring sex ratio and egg hatch rate was detected between treatments. About 88% of the first-laid eggs developed to males. Impact of prey species consumed by male immatures was only observed on pre-oviposition duration. The average pre-oviposition duration of females who mated with males fed on T. urticae in their immaturity was 33.0% shorter than those females who mated with males fed on F. occidentalis in their immaturity. Results of the present study are valuable in optimizing N. californicus field release strategies, and will help further investigations into the nutritional requirements of this species.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by National Agricultural Library