Abstract
We examined voluntary-falling behaviour by adult females of the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) and one of its major predators Neoseiulus californicus McGregor (Acari: Phytoseiidae). Experiments were conducted using a setup in which mites could only move onto one of two landing points by falling. Significantly more T. urticae females fell onto available food leaves compared to non-food or heavily infested leaves, whereas significantly fewer females fell onto leaves with the predatory mite N. californicus compared to leaves without the predator. This suggests that spider mites can actively choose on which patch to land on the basis of food quality and predation risk on the patch. Using the same experimental setup, starved N. californicus females never fell, suggesting that falling T. urticae females gain the potential advantage of predator avoidance.
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. E. Bowler and other members of the Laboratory of Ecological Information for valuable suggestions and encouragement. We also thank anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [Basic Research C; grant number 21580066 to S. Y.].
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Ohzora, Y., Yano, S. Voluntary Falling in Spider Mites in Response to Different Ecological Conditions at Landing Points. J Insect Behav 24, 274–281 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-010-9253-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-010-9253-5