Free living nematodes as alternative prey for soil predatory mites: An interdisciplinary case study of conservation biological control
2019
Azevedo, L.H. | Leite, L.G. | Chacon-Orozco, J.G. | Moreira, M.F.P. | Ferreira, M.P. | Cano, L.M.G. | Borges, V. | Rueda-Ramírez, D. | de Moraes, GJ | Palevsky, E.
Species of soil predatory mites feed on a diverse diet making them excellent biocontrol candidates for conservation biocontrol programs. Free-living nematodes (FLN) are commonly found in soils and serve as prey for many soil predatory mites, but as far as we know, have never been used as alternative prey to enhance the efficacy of soil predatory mites for conservation biological control. Our goal in this case study was to determine whether the FLN Rhabditella axei, provisioned as complementary prey, would improve the efficacy of Macrocheles embersoni as a biocontrol agent of the housefly Musca domestica. Two experimental setups differing temporally and spatially were conducted. The first, performed in small Petri dish arenas over 10 days, assessed M. embersoni fecundity and predation of L1 M. domestica, with or without supplementation of R. axei. The second, carried out in plastic containers over four weeks, was provisioned three times a week with M. domestica eggs and fresh larva diet, with or without nematode supplementation. The efficacy of fly immature predation was estimated by counting the adult flies that emerged. In the short-term, small arena, experiment, nematode supplementation reduced predation. Similarly, in the long-term experiment in plastic containers, more flies emerged in the nematode supplemented treatment during the 3rd week (the 1st week of fly emergence). However, in the 4th week, fly emergence dropped dramatically in the nematode supplemented treatment, whereas fly emergence continued to escalate in the treatment that received only fly eggs, and M. embersoni abundance was about a third of that in the nematode supplemented treatment. In summary, complementing the diet of M. embersoni with nematodes resulted in higher predator abundance and better biological control.
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