Laboratory Study of the Dispersal Behavior of Amblyseius fallacis (Acarina: Phytoseiidae)1

Abstract

A specific behavior described in this publication is suspected to be involved in the dispersal of the phytoseiid mite, Amblyseius fallacis (Garman) in nature. In laboratory studies, preovipositing adult females, ovipositing adult females, and to a lesser extent, the adult males were the principal life stages that exhibited the behavior. The behavior was stimulated in these mites by an air speed ≥ 1 mile per hour: (1) initially mites altered their behavior from a random search movement to a directional movement toward the edge of an arena where (2) they terminated all forward motion, (3) began to orientate to the air flow and (4) eventually assumed an anteriorly raised stance downwind from which they (5) frequently dispersed via air currents. Starvation and to a lesser extent temperature affected display of the dispersal behavior of the ovipositing adult females and, to a limited extent, the adult males and the preovipositing adult females.