Integrated Life History of Generalist - Specialist Predators Comparative studies on the classification of phyoseiid predation types using traits of immature and adult female mites

The concept of predation types and specialists versus generalists is a widely known in animal ecology, but applications of these concepts to biological control and pest management are less well developed. It is proposed to define subtypes and traits of several predation types using quantitative tools such as discriminate analysis, other types of multiple regression and modelling. These relationships will be explored among phytoseiid mites, a diverse family of more than 1.600 currently described species. Many phytoseiids are predators of phytophagous mites and insects and are of ecological and economic significance in most agriculture and many natural resource settings. Recently, 4 classifications, including 2 specialist and 2 generalist predation types have been proposed for phytoseiids. It is proposed to develop more definitive and quantitative tools for defining subtypes of specialist and generalist predators using traits of adult females and immature life stages with emphasis on the latter. The applicant will take leadership to carry comparative studies of several key life history traits (developmental rates, larval activity and feeding, nymphal feeding preferences, nymphal searching areas and spatial distributions, cannibalism by nymphs and interspecific predation by nymphs on other phytoseiids) of 13 key phytoseiid species for which the database of other characters is most well developed. This study will focus on traits of immature stages but will seek to integrate this information with the other database elements that exist for traits mostly of adult females. The overall goal is to better understand how life history traits of each life stage grouping are related and how they compliment each other to provide an "overall" life history strategy of a species. The end result will be more robust models of predation for phytoseiids and hopefully these studies will apply to other groups of natural enemies, including other predators and parasitoids of agricultural pests.