*Correspondence: Peter Schausberger, Group of Arthropod Ecology and Behavior, Division of Plant Protection, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Peter Jordanstrasse 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria e-mail: peter.schausberger@boku. ac.at Predation is a prime selective force shaping prey behavior. Investment in anti-predator behavior is traded-off agains...

Title of Dissertation: MECHANISMS UNDERLYING OUTBREAKS OF SPIDER MITES FOLLOWING APPLICATIONS OF IMIDACLOPRID. Adrianna Szczepaniec, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor Michael J. Raupp, Department of Entomology Imidacloprid is a widely used neonicotinoid insecticide with high efficacy and long residual activity, and it is frequently applied to manage insect pests in urban landscapes. Recent rep...

BACKGROUND: Chemical control of spider mites and thrips in everbearer strawberry is difficult as few efficient chemicals are available and residues represent a risk. In the north the success of biocontrol of mites and thrips in open fields compared with tunnels needs to be evaluated. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the need for control of spider mites and thrips and evaluate the effectiveness of bio...

Plants infested with the spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, may indirectly defend themselves by releasing volatiles that attract the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot. Several plants from different plant families that varied in the level of spider mite acceptance were tested in an olfactometer. The predatory mites were significantly attracted to the spider mite-infested l...

BACKGROUND Studies in patients with allergic rhinitis living in the Free State have showed grass pollens to be the predominant allergens, with house-dust mite sensitisation being less prevalent than in the coastal areas and a low rate of sensitisation to the storage mite Lepidoglyphus destructor. No studies have been conducted on sensitisation to the other storage mites, spider mites or cockroa...

BACKGROUND Prenatal or embryonic learning, behavioral change following experience made prior to birth, may have significant consequences for postnatal foraging behavior in a wide variety of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and molluscs. However, prenatal learning has not been previously shown in arthropods such as insects, spiders and mites. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS ...

Adult female twospotted spider mites, Tetranychus urticae Koch, reared on lima bean plants were moved to cucumber, maize, or new lima bean plants (the latter being a control) and evaluated after 24 h or 7 d for changes in susceptibility to three pesticides and in levels of related detoxification enzymes. The largest and most consistent changes were observed in mites feeding on cucumber. Suscept...

The genome of the spider mite Tetranychus urticae, a herbivore, is missing important elements of the canonical Drosophila immune pathways necessary to fight bacterial infections. However, it is not known whether spider mites can mount an immune response and survive bacterial infection. In other chelicerates, bacterial infection elicits a response mediated by immune effectors leading to the surv...