POTENTIAL OF FLORIDA NATURAL ENEMIES TO CONTROL THE INVASIVE SPECIES RAOIELLA INDICA (ACARI: TENUIPALPIDAE) By DANIEL CARRILLO A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Daniel Carrillo 2 To my family and friends, whose patience and encouragement have helped me throughout the process of writing this dissertation 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe thanks to many people whose assistance was indispensable in completing this work. First among these is Dr. Jorge E. Peña, advisor and chair, whose trust and generosity motivated me throughout the process. I am thankful for his professional advice, scientific guidance, mentoring, financial support and frienship. I also thank the other members of my committee Dr. Marjorie A. Hoy, Dr. J. Howard Frank and Dr. Jonathan H. Crane for their continued support, scientific guidance, and for their multiple reviews to this dissertation and the articles derived from it. Additional recognition goes to Dr. Martha de Coss and Dr. Josep Jacas and who worked with me conducting some of the studies. Dr. Jacas played an important role in this dissertation providing advice and multiple reviews to manuscripts. I acknowledge Dr. Nalapang Sikavas and Dr. James Colee (University of Florida-Statistics Department) for providing statistical advice. I thank Drs. James A. McMurtry, Eric Palevsky, Ron Ochoa and Paul Kendra for helpful reviews to the manuscripts presented here. I am also thankful to Dr. Cal Welbourn, Dr. Raymond J. Gagné and Dr. Lionel A. Stange for the identification of mite, midges, and lacewing specimens, respectively. I thank Dr. Eric Riddick for providing Stethorus punctillum, and Drs. Amy Roda, Divina Amalin, Denise Navia, Jose Carlos Rodrigues, Ron Ochoa and Francisco Ferragut for their cooperation. A special recognition goes for Rita E. Duncan, Katia Santos and David Long who were good friends and excellent coworkers throughout the project. I acknowledge the help received from the Faculty and Staff of the Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, especially from Ana Vargas, Jose Alegria, Manny Soto and Holly Glenn. I am grateful to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the Royal Botanical Garden for providing plant material and access to their collections; the University of Florida. I thank Y. Ali, L. Bradshaw, R. Gonzales, K. Harradan, M. Kent, S. Maraj, P. Perez, N. Raj, and P. Siew, for their help. Finally, I acknowledge my family for their constant encouragement and my partner Paula for her 4 dedication, patience and unconditional support. This research was partially funded by the United States Depertment of Agriculture through a Tropical Subtropical Agriculture Research grant to Jorge E. Peña. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................9 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................10 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ............................................................................................14 Research Objectives ................................................................................................................18 Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................18 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................20 Taxonomy of Raoiella indica ..........................................................................................20 Biology of R. indica ........................................................................................................21 Mite and Host Plant Interactions .....................................................................................23 Influence of Abiotic Factors on R. indica .......................................................................25 2 A REVIEW OF THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE RED PALM MITE, RAOIELLA INDICA (ACARI: TENUIPALPIDAE) .................................................................................28 Introduction .............................................................................................................................28 Natural Enemies of R. indica ..................................................................................................29 Predatory Mites ...............................................................................................................29 Predatory Insects .............................................................................................................33 Pathogens .........................................................................................................................37 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................38 3 DEVELOPMENT AND REPRODUCTION OF AMBLYSEIUS LARGOENSIS (ACARI: PHYTOSEIIDAE) FEEDING ON POLLEN, RAOIELLA INDICA (ACARI: TENUIPALPIDAE), AND OTHER MICROARTHROPODS INHABITING COCONUTS IN FLORIDA ...................................................................................................50 Introduction .............................................................................................................................51 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................53 Source of A. largoensis, R. indica, Tetranychus gloveri, Aonidiella orientalis, Nipaecoccus nipae and Quercus virginiana Pollen. ....................................................53 Stock colony of A. largoensis ..................................................................................53 Stock colony of R. indica .........................................................................................54 Stock colony of T. gloveri ........................................................................................54 Stock colonies of A. orientalis and N. nipae ............................................................55 Source of pollen .......................................................................................................55 6 Feeding Experiments with A. largoensis .........................................................................55 Experimental arenas .................................................................................................55 Experimental setup ...................................................................................................56 Statistical Analysis ..........................................................................................................57 Results .....................................................................................................................................57 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................59 4 PREY-STAGE PREFERENCES AND FUNCTIONAL AND NUMERICAL RESPONSES OF AMBLYSEIUS LARGOENSIS (ACARI: PHYTOSEIIDAE) TO RAOIELLA INDICA (ACARI: TENUIPALPIDAE) ..............................................................66 Introduction .............................................................................................................................67 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................69 Rearing and General Experimental Procedures ...............................................................69 Raoiella indica Stage Preference by A. largoensis .........................................................70 Functional and Numerical Responses of Amblyseius largoensis to Varying Densities of R. indica Eggs ..........................................................................................71 Results .....................................................................................................................................72 R. indica Stage Preference by A. largoensis ....................................................................72 Functional and Numerical Responses of A.largoensis to Varying Densities of R. indica Eggs...................................................................................................................73 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................74 5 VARIABILITY IN RESPONSE OF FOUR POPULATIONS OF AMBLYSEIUS LARGOENSIS (ACARI: PHYTOSEIIDAE) TO RAOIELLA INDICA (ACARI: TENUIPALPIDAE) AND TETRANYCHUS GLOVERI (ACARI: TETRANYCHIDAE) EGGS AND LARVA .............................................................................................................84 Introduction .............................................................................................................................85 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................87