Research Info

The fitness and population dynamics of predators depend on the quality of host plants consumed by their prey. In this study, age-stage, two-sex life table parameters and predation rate of Typhlodromus bagdasarjaniWainstein & Arutunjan were determined on two-spotted spider mite reared on susceptible (‘Isfahan’) and resistant (‘Neishabour’) eggplant cultivars under laboratory conditions at 2561C, 6065% relative humidity, and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) h. The means, variances, and standard errors of the life table and predation parameters were estimated using the bootstrap resampling procedure. The value of the intrinsic rate of increase (r) of this predator on the susceptible eggplant cultivar (0.1538 d1) was significantly higher than that on the resistant one (0.1175 d1). The value of the net reproductive rate (R0) on the susceptible and resistant eggplant cultivars was 7.55 and 8.21 offspring, respectively. In addition, the mean generation time (T) was 12.97 and 17.75 d, respectively. The agestage- specific predation rate (cxj) of all stages of the predator on the resistant eggplant cultivar was higher than that on the susceptible one. In addition, the value of net predation rate (C0) on the susceptible and resistant eggplant cultivars was 193.05 and 221.44 preys per predator, respectively. In addition, the value of finite predation rate (x) on the resistant cultivar (7.005 preys per predator per day) was significantly higher than that on the susceptible one (6.361 preys per predator per day). In conclusion, due to higher finite predation rate on the resistant eggplant cultivar, the performance of the predator on this cultivar was more than that on the susceptible one.