| Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae) male counter-attack towards Phytoseiulus persimilis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) |
| Paper ID : 1002-IPCA4 |
| Authors |
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Azadeh Zahedi Golpayegani *1, Kiana Mortezapour1, Alireza Saboori2 1University of Tehran 2Dept. Plant Protection, Col. Aric., Univ. Tehran |
| Abstract |
| Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae) male counter-attack towards Phytoseiulus persimilis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) Kiana Mortezapour , Azadeh Zahedi Golpayegani and Alireza Saboori Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran, kiana.mortezapoor@ut.ac.ir, zahedig@ut.ac.ir, Saboori@ut.ac.ir Prey counter-attacking response is of prevalent reactions in arthropods mostly recorded from those with concrete social behavior. Here we have investigated the counter-attack behavior of the non-social two spotted spider mite male, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) towards its female predatory mite, Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias- Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae). The same-aged ovipositing T. urticae were put on bean leaf discs (3 × 3 cm2) singly along with their (one) sexual partner. Second treatments were provided the same but another same-aged males (one) were added to the leaf complex. All stages except the male and the oviposited eggs were removed from the discs after four days. The experiment was started by adding a P. persimilis protonymph (same-aged in all replicates) to the leaf disc. Those patches in which the predator protonymphs were converted to male, were excluded. Recording the percentage of eaten T. urticae eggs and the female predator situation (dead or alive) every two hours, we monitored the interactions between the male T. urticae and the predator on the first and third days of experiment. 20 replicates were considered for the experiment. Experimental units were kept under controlled conditions (25 ± 1 ºC, 70 ± 5% RH and 16L:8D hours) in growth chamber, Laboratory of Mite Ecology and Behaviour, Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum, University of Tehran. We considered “succeeded counter-attack” when the predator had preyed on less than 50% of prey eggs and was killed and “defeated counter-attack” when it happened in reverse. According to data analysis through Quchran Q and Kruskal wallis tests in SPSS 25, one individual male on the patch could act as successful representative for counter-attack behavior (0.98 ± 0.19 v.s. 0.66 ± 0.44, Mean ± S.E., P<0.01). Comparing the successive day collected data, we showed that the T. urticae male behavior had a definite lean to the third day. In the treatments with two males, neither success nor defeat was recorded (neutral). It seems that a pair of male would mostly concentrate on competing strategies rather than caring the juveniles. The probable effects of morphological traits on such a behavior has being investigated. |
| Keywords |
| Counter-attack, behavior, Phytoseiidae, interaction, spider mite |
| Status: Abstract Accepted (Poster Presentation) |