Mating and Oviposition Behavior
Defensive behaviors of prey can affect the success of a predator (Sabelis and Dicke
1985). Parents can use different strategies for protection of their offspring such as
change oviposition site, absorb the egg material or retain the eggs inside their body
and depositing eggs away from risky patches (Montserrat et al. 2007). In a study,
Askarieh Yazdi et al. (2015) used females of two forms of T.urticae, red and green
forms, to study whether they retain eggs in response to exposure to the predatory
mites P. persimilis and A. swirskii and showed egg development time of the green
form was significantly shorter than that of the red form after receiving cues related to
P. persimilis-prey interactions. The rate of predation, oviposition, and development
of the predatory mite N. californicus by Karami Badrbani et al. (2015) was studied
and showed that preying on red T. urticae and mixed (red+green) could be resulted
in the slowest development of the protonymph and deutonymph stages of T. urticae
than green form. Dehghani-Tafti et al. (2015) surveyed the effect of mating experience, on male individuals in P. persimilis and N.californicus and stated both naive
and experienced males were able to mate females equally.
Learning Behaviour
Learning is defined as changed behavior following experience and could affect many
important activities such as foraging, reproducing and social interactions and is
considered as an optimizing activity which assists the organism behaviors regarding
the varying environment (Walzer and Schausberger 2011; Strodl and Schausberger
2012). This phenomenon has been studied in predatory mites of the family
Phytoseiidae (Drukker et al. 2000; Rahmani et al. 2009b; Schausberger et al.
2010). Experienced predators wasted less energy in finding, attacking, and handling
prey and thus could retain their energy to egg production (Christiansen et al. 2016).
Also, they showed larvae and early protonymphs of A. swirskii like other predatory
mites, e.g. Neoseiulus californicus in foraging context and Phytoseiulus persimilis in
social and cannibalism contexts can learn.
Effects of immature experience on handling time of females of the predatory mite
N. californicus and P. persimilis were evaluated in laboratory conditions and have
been showed experience with two-spotted spider mite larvae in the immature stages
had no effect on the handling time of the predatory females on their prey. But
experience with heterospecific larvae of P. persimilis significantly decreased handling time of N. californicus femalses (Asadi et al. 2014a, b). In another study, the
effect of rearing conditions on the leaving or residence tendency of N. barkeri on
bean leaf disc was investigated and described experienced predatory mites having
tendency to reside on bean leaf (Bohloolzadeh et al. 2014a, b). In a study,
Mohammadi et al. (2012) concluded that by increasing the reared generations of
P. persimilis on spider mite infested plants, the higher fraction of predators had the
ability to recognize their food patch. Rahmani and Hosseini (2012) demonstrated
social learning in noncolonial predatory mite, N. californicus and stated that experienced predators attacked T. urticae more three times earlier than neutral predators
do. Borji et al. (2014) investigated repeatability of aggressiveness against con-and
heterospecific prey in N. californicus and declared this mite was more aggressive
98
H. Hajiqanbar and A. Farazmand
Defensive behaviors of prey can affect the success of a predator (Sabelis and Dicke
1985). Parents can use different strategies for protection of their offspring such as
change oviposition site, absorb the egg material or retain the eggs inside their body
and depositing eggs away from risky patches (Montserrat et al. 2007). In a study,
Askarieh Yazdi et al. (2015) used females of two forms of T.urticae, red and green
forms, to study whether they retain eggs in response to exposure to the predatory
mites P. persimilis and A. swirskii and showed egg development time of the green
form was significantly shorter than that of the red form after receiving cues related to
P. persimilis-prey interactions. The rate of predation, oviposition, and development
of the predatory mite N. californicus by Karami Badrbani et al. (2015) was studied
and showed that preying on red T. urticae and mixed (red+green) could be resulted
in the slowest development of the protonymph and deutonymph stages of T. urticae
than green form. Dehghani-Tafti et al. (2015) surveyed the effect of mating experience, on male individuals in P. persimilis and N.californicus and stated both naive
and experienced males were able to mate females equally.
Learning Behaviour
Learning is defined as changed behavior following experience and could affect many
important activities such as foraging, reproducing and social interactions and is
considered as an optimizing activity which assists the organism behaviors regarding
the varying environment (Walzer and Schausberger 2011; Strodl and Schausberger
2012). This phenomenon has been studied in predatory mites of the family
Phytoseiidae (Drukker et al. 2000; Rahmani et al. 2009b; Schausberger et al.
2010). Experienced predators wasted less energy in finding, attacking, and handling
prey and thus could retain their energy to egg production (Christiansen et al. 2016).
Also, they showed larvae and early protonymphs of A. swirskii like other predatory
mites, e.g. Neoseiulus californicus in foraging context and Phytoseiulus persimilis in
social and cannibalism contexts can learn.
Effects of immature experience on handling time of females of the predatory mite
N. californicus and P. persimilis were evaluated in laboratory conditions and have
been showed experience with two-spotted spider mite larvae in the immature stages
had no effect on the handling time of the predatory females on their prey. But
experience with heterospecific larvae of P. persimilis significantly decreased handling time of N. californicus femalses (Asadi et al. 2014a, b). In another study, the
effect of rearing conditions on the leaving or residence tendency of N. barkeri on
bean leaf disc was investigated and described experienced predatory mites having
tendency to reside on bean leaf (Bohloolzadeh et al. 2014a, b). In a study,
Mohammadi et al. (2012) concluded that by increasing the reared generations of
P. persimilis on spider mite infested plants, the higher fraction of predators had the
ability to recognize their food patch. Rahmani and Hosseini (2012) demonstrated
social learning in noncolonial predatory mite, N. californicus and stated that experienced predators attacked T. urticae more three times earlier than neutral predators
do. Borji et al. (2014) investigated repeatability of aggressiveness against con-and
heterospecific prey in N. californicus and declared this mite was more aggressive
98
H. Hajiqanbar and A. Farazmand