S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 48. (Budapest, 1987)
FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK XLVIII 1987 p. 2127 Observations on the biology of two species of acarid mites By S. A. ERAKY (Received January 10, 1987) Abstract: Observations on the biology of two species of acarid mites. - Egg production; oviposition periods; female longevity; sex ratio and the duration of all stages under laboratory conditions were tabulated for Caloglyphus bérlései (Mich.) and Acoty ledon krameri (Berl.). The mean number of eggs laid by one female was found to be 755.2 and 842.6 eggs for Caloglyphus and Acotyledon , respecitvely . The number of eggs per female in the absence of males were found to be less than in the presence of males, females of both species did not receive enough sperm in a 1-2 day-exposure to males to achieve their full egg-laying potential. Moreover, the number of various stages inside the body of dead females after the last egg-laying has been recorded for both species. The life cycles of the common acarid pests of stored products, belonging to the genera Aca- rus and Tyrophagus , have been studied, especially the effect of nutritional factors; temperature; relative humidity and other factors influencing the life cycles of some species of these genera WOODRING (1963 a, b). The works of RIVARD (1961), KEVEN and SHARMA (1963), CUNNINGTDN (1965), GRIFFITHS (1964) and DAVIS and HUNTER (1963) serve ample .guide to this literature. Many of these stored-product acarids occur also in field environments (GRIFFITHS I960)- FURMIZO (1975) described the collection and the isolation of mites from house-dust samples. However, all the interested arthropods have confirmed, that mites are the most predominant arthropods in the soil fauna EL-KIFL (1959); YUNKER and GUIRGIS (1969) and SALIT et al. (1972). This paper is concerned with detailed life histories of two acarid species cultured under laboratory conditions on yeasted Drosophila (1000 ml water, 200 g meal, 200 g sugar, 150 g yeast, 120 g agar-agar and 10 ml Nepagon). The hypopial stages of both species of acarid mites were collected from the Szentendre cow farm. This farm is located about 20 km from Budapest (Hungary). The farm is surrounded by cultivated areas and has some sheds for breeding cows. The stock populations were obtained by placing these hypopial stages in petri dishes (9 cm in diameter) with filter paper and yeasted Drosophila . Large populations of the two species developed in these culture dishes in 10 to 15 days. A high relative humidity was maintained by adding tap-water to the cultures. The exact relative humidity was not determined, but the relative humidity seemed to be more than 80 % as the effect of adding a few drops of water to the filter papers of every dish. All the dishes of stock populations and other experiments have been covered with Parafilms. The use of yeasted Drosophila seems to be useful in preventing the contamination of petri dishes. Duration of the life stages Both species of acarid mites develop through four immature stages: egg, larva, protonymph and tritonymph or in some cases, five stages: eggs, larva, protonymph, hypopus and tritonymph.
