[Edited_by_A._Ciancio,_C.N.R.,_Bari,_Italy_and_K.(Bookos.org)

PREDATORY MITES IN IPM
315
antagonists. For this reason, processes optimising their efficacy and persistence are
needed.
A combination of control efficiency with low production costs and receptive
markets is needed to support the development of effective mass rearing technologies
for selected antagonists, including importation and cultures of appropriate natural
enemies on alternative food, automated productions, testing of technologies for
production and quality of predators, processing, storage, packaging, distribution and
release of natural enemies of insect and/or weed pests. Recently, more and more
effective augmentative and classical biological control strategies for key pests have
been developed.
Phytoseiids satisfactorily match all the needs of the production pathway and
their production and marketing sensibly increased in the last years (Van Lenteren,
2003). Some species i.e. Phytoseiulus persimilis and Neoseiulus californicus (Fig. 1)
are worldwide employed in control strategies. They have been widely and
successfully used in the biological control of tetranychids phytophagous mites, for
over half a century and more recently for thrips and aleurodids (Gerson &
Weintraub, 2007; Messelink, Van Steenpaal, & Ramakers, 2006; Messelink,
Maanen, Van Steenpaal, & Janssen, 2008). For many phytoseiids species the rearing
can be conducted on a number of alternative preys, which lowered considerably the
costs.
Figure 1. Phytoseiulus persimilis preying on Tetranychus urticae on strawberry leaf (A), and
Neoseiulus californicus preying astigmatid mite on rearing unit (B).
The large number of studies on biological traits of phytoseiids allowed
producers to determine and/or automate the best mass rearing techniques and to
establish their potential for control. At the same time research from bioindustries
contributed to increase the bulk of knowledge, not only in terms of production
standards and/or protocols to evaluate the quality and efficiency of reared predators,
but also in terms of benefits for the theoretical study of predator-prey interactions.