%0 Journal Article
%T A Modular Cage System Design for Continuous Medium to Large Scale In Vivo Rearing of Predatory Mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae)
%A Juan Alfredo Morales-Ramos
%A Maria Guadalupe Rojas
%J Psyche
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/596768
%X A new stackable modular system was developed for continuous in vivo production of phytoseiid mites. The system consists of cage units that are filled with lima beans,£¿£¿Phaseolus lunatus, or red beans, P. vulgaris, leaves infested with high levels of the two-spotted spider mites, Tetranychus urticae. The cage units connect with each other through a connection cup, which also serves for monitoring and collection. Predatory mites migrate upwards to new cage units as prey is depleted. The system was evaluated for production of Phytoseiulus persimilis. During a 6-month experimental period, (mean ¡À standard deviation) predators were produced per week. The production consisted of % nymphs and % adults. A mean of predatory mites were collected per harvested cage and the mean interval length between harvests was days. The potential for commercial and experimental applications is discussed. 1. Introduction Phytoseiid mites are very effective predators used mainly in biological control of spider mites, Tetranychus urticae (Koch); however, phytoseiids are known to provide effective control of other mite species and some insects like thrips and white flies [1]. Zhang [2] reported that at least 20 species of phytoseiids have been made commercially available and have been applied mainly on greenhouse plants. The phytoseiid that has been most widely mass-produced and sold commercially is Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot. Phytoseiulus persimilis is an effective biological control agent of spider mites on vegetables in glasshouses [3¨C5] and growers around the world use P. persimilis to control T. urticae and other tetranychid mites on crops grown in greenhouses and in the field [6, 7]. Other phytoseiid species produced commercially and used in augmentative biological control of greenhouse pests include Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans), N. barkeri Hughes, N. californicus (McGregor), N. fallacis (German), Iphiseius degenerans (Berlese), and Galendromus occidentalis (Nesbitt) [2]. Current methods of mass production of phytoseiid mites such as P. persimilis rely on greenhouse growth of bean plants for spider mite production and later inoculation with the predatory mite. A pure spider mite culture, free of predators, is also required for rearing. Infested leaves from the pure culture are used to infest bean plants in a different greenhouse. A series of greenhouse benches are inoculated at weekly intervals to provide continuous supply of prey. Predators are later introduced to bean plants heavily infested with spider mites and grown for 2-3 weeks. A section of the bench
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2014/596768/