اثر وجود یا عدم وجود دوماتیا بر میزان همخواری ماده‌های بالغ Phytoseiulus persimilis وAmblyseius swirskii (Acari: Phytoseiidae) روی لارو همگونه

Domatia are small structures, found in many plant species, at the underside of leaves. They provide shelter to predatory mite could protect them against stressful conditions. In this research, we have studied the effect of such a structure presence or absence on two specialist and generalist conspecific larval cannibalism rate by adult females, Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot and Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot, respectively. A detached sweet pepper plant (Capsicum annuum var. California Wonder, 2.5×2.5 cm) was put on a water-saturated sponge in a water–filled Petri dish (9 cm). An adult P. persimilis female along with 5 same-aged P. persimilis larvae were added to the experimental unit. They were kept under controlled conditions (25±2 °C, RH: 65±5%, L: 16, D: 8). The domatia on Control units were omitted using small liquid adhesive drops. In order to limit any probable effect of adhesive odor, the same drops were used on treatment patches with natural domatia. The number of eaten larvae in open and close domatia was recorded after 12 hours. The test for A. swirskii species was repeated under the same conditions. Data was analyzed through independent t test in SPSS 24. Our results showed that the presence of domatia significantly (P<0/05; less than 1 against 1/06± 0/31) reduced cannibalism of adult females on larvae in the P. persimilis species, while such an effect was not recorded for A.swirskii species (P<0/05; 0/1±/0/1 against 0/45±0/2). According to the results of this research, the effect of domatia on reducing the cannibalism could be dependent on the aggression level and the type of predator life style.