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Life Cycle of the Mite Adactylidium sp. (Acarina: Pyemotidae), a Predator of Thrips Eggs in the United Arab Republic
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1966
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Mite Adactylidium SpEntomologyEfficient PredatorTropical Insect ScienceArthropod TaxonomyUnited Arab RepublicParasitologyBiological Life CycleBiologyTerrestrial ArthropodDevelopmental BiologyBody CavityNatural SciencesEvolutionary BiologyHyperparasiteSymbiosisMedicineInsect Social BehaviorLife Cycle
The pyemotid mite Adactylidium sp. is an efficient predator on the eggs of Gynaikothrips ficorum (Marchal), a thysanopteran which infests the leaves of the ornamental tree Ficus nitida Thunberg in U.A.R. Only 1 mite, a female in its mature feeding stage, is associated with a single egg of the thrips. During this stage, the idiosoma of the mite becomes enormously swollen, owing to the internal development of oacytes into larvae that are set free in the body cavity and metamorphose there, through 1 nymphal stage, to adults. The life cycle, at 30°C, requires 4 days; fully engorged females produce 6–9 sexually mature individuals, viviparously, of which only 1 is a male.