Comparative Study of the Biological and Life Table Parameters of Two Spider Mite Pest Species, Tetranychus merganser Boudreaux and Oligonychus punicae Hirst (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae), on Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae)

Julio César Chacón-Hernández (), Salvador Ordaz-Silva, Eduardo Osorio-Hernández, Imelda Virginia López-Sánchez, Efrain Neri-Ramírez and José Guadalupe Pedro-Méndez
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Julio César Chacón-Hernández: Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Ciudad Victoria 87019, Mexico
Salvador Ordaz-Silva: Faculty of Business and Engineering San Quintín, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, San Quintín 22930, Mexico
Eduardo Osorio-Hernández: Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Ciudad Victoria 87019, Mexico
Imelda Virginia López-Sánchez: Faculty of Business and Engineering San Quintín, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, San Quintín 22930, Mexico
Efrain Neri-Ramírez: Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Ciudad Victoria 87019, Mexico
José Guadalupe Pedro-Méndez: Faculty of Business and Engineering San Quintín, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, San Quintín 22930, Mexico

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Oligonychus punicae Hirst and Tetranychus merganser Boudreaux (Acari: Tetranychidae) are two species of feeding spider mites that cause damage to the leaves of Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae). This research aimed to compare the biological and demographic parameters between T. merganser and O. punicae on M. oleifera leaflets. We calculated the demographic parameters for both spider mite species based on individual females’ daily age-specific survival rate ( lx ) and age-specific fecundity ( mx ). The mean immature period of O. punicae females (10.30 days) and males (10.05 days) was more extended than the T. merganser (8.62 and 8.61 days), respectively. The oviposition of T. merganser (58.02 eggs/female) was more significant than O. punicae (21.84 eggs/female), which caused its intrinsic natural growth rate to be higher for T. merganser (0.2771 d −1 ) than for O. punicae (0.1948 d −1 ). The generation time of T. merganser was shorter (13.01 days) than that of O. punicae (15.77 days), indicating that T. merganser has more life cycles per year than O. punicae . The Weibull model determined that the survival curves of T. merganser and O. punicae are Type I, and the O. punicae population decreases more slowly than the T. merganser population. The results of this study can be used to develop management and control strategies for both mite species in the M. oleifera crop.

Keywords: demographic parameters; development; fecundity; survival; Weibull model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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