Assessment of Searching Efficiency and Functional Response of Acarophagous Species against Red Spider Mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Investigation of predatory traits, which are mostly unexplored, such as prey consumption, reproduction rate and searching propensity, could offer crucial information for the selection of creative control agents.

In this study, two sets of experiments were carried out, the first set of which was intended to assess the effectiveness of the search and the second set for the functional response.

The intake of T. urticae by S. pauperculus, Oligota sp. and A. longispinosus dramatically increased as predator density increased from one to eight, according to research on searching efficiency. However, when predator number increased, prey consumption per predator declined. The amount of prey consumed by the larvae did not increase despite the prey density quadrupling. Prey consumption by predators increased as prey density increased, while prey consumption as a percentage dropped as prey density increased, according to a functional response. When the number of prey increased from 50 to 800, the area where predators were discovered reduced.