Learning affects response to volatile allelochemicals by predatory mites

When the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis had been reared on Tetranychus urticae on lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) leaves, it preferred the volatile chemical emitted from leaves of that host plant to that from infested cucumber leaves, and vice versa. This is the 1st evidence of learning in predatory mites. This paper was presented at the 1st annual meeting of the section of Experimental and Applied Entomology of the Netherlands Entomological Society on 15 December 1989 in Utrecht, Netherlands