TY - JOUR JF - Acarologia T1 - Biology and life-table of Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) athenas (Acari: Phytoseiidae) fed with the Old World Date Mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (Acari: Tetranychidae) VL - 58 IS - 1 SP - 52 EP - 61 PY - 2018 SN - 0044-586X SN - 2107-7207 PB - Les Amis d'Acarologia AU - Ben Chaaban, Samah AU - Chermiti, Brahim AU - Kreiter, Serge UR - https://doi.org/10.24349/acarologia/20184229 DO - 10.24349/acarologia/20184229 DA - 2018-01-18 ET - 2018-01-18 KW - Tunisia KW - date palm KW - O. afrasiaticus KW - Typhlodromus (A.) athenas KW - Phytoseiidae KW - life table AB - The old world date mite Oligonychus afrasiaticus is an important spider mite pest of the date palms Phoenix dactylifera L. mostly in North Africa and the Middle East. A population of the predaceous mite Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) athenas has been recently found in Tunisia in association with a decrease of O. afrasiaticus densities. The objective of this paper was to assess the development and reproduction abilities of T. ( A.) athenas on O. afrasiaticus under laboratory conditions at two temperatures: 27 and 32 °C. The results obtained show that females of T. (A.) athenas develop in 5 days at 27 °C and 4.1 days at 32 °C. The mean fecundity of T. (A.) athenas was 32.1 and 23.2 eggs per female at 27 and 32 °C, respectively. Life table parameters were stimated: the net reproductive rate (Ro) 27.9 and 17.9 eggs/female, the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) 0.322 and 0,344 female/female/day and the mean generation time (T) 10.3 and 8.4 days at 27 and 32 °C, respectively. At both temperatures tested, T. (A.) athenas intrinsic rate of increase was greater than that of O. afrasiaticus (rm = 0.213 at 32 °C,against rm = 0.166 day1 at 27 °C). Typhlodromus (A.) athenas would be able to develop at a wide range of temperatures feeding on O. afrasiaticus and seems to be able to potentially control it. ER -