Prospects for Biological Control of Plant Feeding Mites and Other Harmful Organisms

The history of biological control of harmful organisms by mites is marked by outstanding achievements with a few premiere natural enemies. Early works concentrated on the use of predatory mites for the control of synanthropic flies, More recently, the focus has been mostly on mites of the family Phytoseiidae for the control of plant feeding mites. This is an important family of acarine predators of plant pest mites, which are effectively used in agriculture worldwide. Besides the vast knowledge in several species in this family, there are as well many opportunities for biological control, represented in an array of organisms and through the improvement of management techniques, which are constantly explored by researchers worldwide. This has resulted in an increasing interest in predatory mite species within the families Stigmaeidae, Ascidae, Laelapidae, Rhodacaroidea, Macrochelidae, Erythraeidae and Cheyletidae, among others. This book will compile important developments with predatory mite species within these families, which are emerging as important tools for integrated pest management. New developments with predatory insects and pathogenic organisms attacking mites will also be a subject of this book. Finally, the potential and gaps in knowledge in biological control of acarine plant pests will be addressed.

Contenu

1 Mesostigmata as Biological Control Agents, with Emphasis on Rhodacaroidea and Parasitoidea - Raphael C. Castilho, Renan Venancio and João Paulo Z. Narita
2 Potential of Ascidae, Blattisociidae and Melicharidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) as Biological Control Agents of Pest Organisms - Gilberto J. de Moraes, Renan Venancio, Victor L. V. dos Santos and Adilson D. Paschoal
3 The Potential of Free-living Laelapid Mites (Mesostigmata: Laelapidae) as Biological Control Agents - Grazielle Furtado Moreira and Gilberto José de Moraes
4 Macrochelid Mites (Mesostigmata: Macrochelidae) as Biological Control Agents - Letícia H. de Azevedo, Rowan M. Emberson, Fernanda de C. N. Esteca and Gilberto J. de Moraes
5 The Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) as Biological Control Agents - James A. McMurtry, Nazer Famah Sourassou and Peterson Rodrigo Demite
6 Prostigmata (Acari: Trombidiformes) as Biological Control Agents - Fabio A. Hernandes; Tatiane Marie M.G. de Castro and Renan Venancio
7 Stigmaeidae - Qing-Hai Fan and Carlos H.W. Flechtmann
8 The Erythraeoidea (Trombidiformes: Prostigmata) as Biological Control Agents, with Special Reference to the Genus Balaustium - Karen Muñoz-Cárdenas, Luz Stella Fuentes, Diana Rueda-Ramirez, C. Daniel Rodríguez, R. Fernando Cantor
9 The Cheyletoidea (Prostigmata), with Special Reference to the Potential of Cheyletus malaccensis Oudemans as Biological Control Agent of Post-Harvest Pests - Christos G. Athanassiou and Nickolas E. Palyvos
10 Food Web Engineering to Enhance Biological Control of Tetranychus urticae by Phytoseiid Mites (Tetranychidae: Phytoseiidae) in Citrus - Josep A. Jacas, Ernestina Aguilar-Fenollosa, Mónica A. Hurtado-Ruiz and Tatiana Pina
11 Past, Present, and Future: Biological Control of Spider Mites on California-grown avocados - Jesús R. Lara and Mark S. Hoddle12 Mite Pathogens and their use in Biological Control - Vitalis W. Wekesa, Fabien C. C. Hountondji and Surendra K. Dara