Amblyseius Californicus

Exterior:

The female is oval-shaped and has 4 pairs of legs, its length of about 0.5 mm. The body is pale yellowish in color but can vary from orange to bright reddish-orange depending on feeding. The legs are relatively long, especially the front pair. The dorsal shield has 17 pairs of setae, the posterior pair is somewhat longer and sharp-tipped. Spermateca (receptaculum seminis) has a bell-shaped calyx. There are 3 teeth on the movable cheliceral digit, on the fixed digit there are 4 distal and 2 basal teeth. Males are smaller than females, their chelicera has a specific form of spermatodactyl.

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Life cycle:

A. californicus’ life cycle has a standard type of ontogenesis for parasitoid mites with successively changed developmental instars: egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, adult (female or male). The female prefers to lay eggs in a colony of spider mites.
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Eggs

Eggs are pale whitish, spherical in shape, almost the same width along all the length. The surface of the egg is smooth and shiny, the length is about 0.16 mm. Females lay eggs under leaves, often along veins.

Larvae

Larvae are pale from white to translucent color and have 3 pairs of legs. The opisthosoma has a pair of long setae. Larvae molt into protonymph without feeding.

Protonymphs

Protonymphs are very mobile and active predators of milky-whitish color, they have 4 pairs of legs on the 2d instar of preimaginal development, body length is 0.3 mm. Before molting during the transition to the next developmental instar, the protonymph needs a little feeding.

Deutonymphs

Deutonymphs are whitish and have 4 pairs of legs on the 3d instar of preimaginal development, but they are larger and more voracious. Body length is 0.4 mm.

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Influence of temperature on beneficial insects’ development rate

Instar of development	Time of preimaginal development (days) at a constant temperature °С
	15	20	25	30	35
Egg	6,07	2,24	1,61	1,23	1,14
Larva	2,71	0,97	0,78	0,53	0,5
Protonymph	5,68	1,71	1,44	1,1	1,11
Deutonymph	7,25	1,81	1,24	1,03	1,03
Total	21,71	6,73	5,07	3,89	3,78

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Feeding

Adult predators attack all instars of spider mite. Predator nymphs prefer to feed on eggs, they can hunt at other pest developmental instars. The range of A. californicus’ victims includes a variety of herbivorous mites: Tetranychus urticae, Tetranychus cinnabarinus, Tetranychus atlanticus, Tetranychus turkestani, Oligonychus pratensis, Oligonychus perseae, Oligonychus ilicis, Panonychus citri, Panonychus ulmi (Tetranychidae), Aculus schlechtendali (Four-legged mites Eriophyidae), Phytonemus pallidus, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Tarsonemidae mites). In the case of spider mite absence, predators can attack the larvae of thrips – Thrips tabaci, Frankliniella occidentalis (family Thysanoptera).

The preventive strategy begins with the introduction of scattering material for seedlings in greenhouses, followed by using sachets in problem areas or the first identified outbreaks. 1 litre – bottles are used for applying, bran is poured out on plants, preferably bulk of bran is placed on a substrate cube, predators will climb along stems to examine leaves and look for a feed.
They examine plant qualitatively and lay the first eggs on veins of leaves. We recommend, as a preventive measure to hang 1000 hooked-sachets per 1 ha after plants have been placed in greenhouse, you should place sachets at the ends and along the central path. This is the first part of sachets that is necessary for a prompt reaction to pest outbreaks. Such outbreaks can appear in 2 weeks after the seedling has been placed in a glasshouse or 2 months of vegetation already, depending on the phytosanitary background.The local protection strategy is designed for the effect of a “live insecticide”. Local outbreaks of the 2d and 3d instars with a little amount of cobweb can be covered with a high concentration of predators in a ratio of 1:1 or 1:5. There’s a chance that predators will control development of pests and stop spreading their population. It is important to study the situation in outbreaks in details, remove the cobweb, and heavily affected parts of the plant. This will mechanically reduce pest numbers and increase the opportunity of killing outbreaks. In some cases, it is necessary to carry out acaricidal treatments with compatible pesticides, and only after that apply predator. We advise the need to work on prevention, rather than solve a problem.
To achieve a stable result in different crops with different climatic conditions, we recommend using A. californicus in combination with other bioagents such as Phytoseiulus persimilis, Feltiella acarisuga, Chrysoperla carnea.

Conditions and duration of storage

• Short-term storage: biomaterial (imago and nymphs) can be stored at low temperatures (8-10 °C) in a cooling chamber.
• Long-term storage: the predatory mite is stored in the refrigerator at 10-15 ° C, but the survival rate in the population decreases and the number of predators decreases every day.

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Bio Protection Package:

• 1 litre – bottle contains 10,000 or 25,000 or 50,000 predatory mites;
• 5-litre plastic bucket contains 125,000 predatory mites;
• Paper/ foiled hooked– sachets – the box contains 500 sachets of 250 individuals or 1,000 sachets of 125 individuals. Foiled hooked- sachets are resistant to drying and wet treatments.
• Life Line is a continuous tape (50m) consisting of sachets (Life Line may be produced according to the customer’s individual requirements).

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Bioline AgroSciences Package