Oral delivery of water-soluble compounds to the phytoseiid mite Neoseiulus californicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae).

ABSTRACT: Phytoseiids are predatory mites that prey on other mites and small arthropods, and several species are used in commercial agriculture for biological control of pests. To optimize phytoseiid mites' use in biocontrol, an efficient method for oral delivery of test compounds is required to assess their sensitivities to pesticides, RNAi for gene functional analysis and artificial diets. Here we developed four methods for oral delivery of a solution of xenobiotics to different life stages of the commercially available generalist predatory mite Neoseiulus californicus: (i) soaking mites in the solution, or allowing them to feed on (ii) spider mites soaked in the solution, (iii) a solution droplet, or (iv) solution-saturated filter paper. As measured by ingestion of a tracer dye, the droplet-based

SUBMITTER: Ghazy NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6795443 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature