Pyemotes tritici(Acari: Pyemotidae), a potential biological control agent of Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

The feasibility of utilizing Pyemotes tritici as a biological control agent against the Mediterranean flour moth, Anagasta kuehniella was investigated. The results from experiments designed to assess the effect of P. tritici on cohorts of A. kuehniella of different ages were not significant. They suggested that moth larvae were most severely affected if physogastric P. tritici females were introduced 10 days after moth eggs were added to the experimental arena. In part II, the impact of various densities of P. tritici on flour moths indicated that complete destruction of cohorts of 400 A. kuehniella larvae was achieved by adding about 80 female P. tritici 10 days after the eggs were laid or 6 days after the larvae hatched. Half the above density of pyemotid mites gave inconsistent, but at times complete control.