Description and quantification of field attack rates by predatory mites: An example using an electrophoresis method with a species of Antarctic mite

Lister, A.; Usher, M. B.; Block, William. 1987 Description and quantification of field attack rates by predatory mites: An example using an electrophoresis method with a species of Antarctic mite. Oecologia, 72 (2). 185-191. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379265

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Abstract/Summary

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subsequent esterase staining provide an alternative to immunological methods for investigating the diet of microarthropods which cannot be observed directly. Attack rates in field populations of Antarctic microarthropods by the predator Gamasellus racovitzai were calculated by proportional and quantitative analyses of electrophoresis results. Results were quantified by transmission densitometry and a digestion curve for ingested prey esterases was defined. An exponential decay model of digestion, incorporating meal size, was used, and a method potentially enabling both the time since feeding and the composite meal size to be estimated for individual predators is described. These methods are applied to samples of predatory mites collected from the Antarctic Peninsula. Although estimated attack rates were low, about 0.1–0.3 prey per predator per day, they may be sufficient to cause severe local reduction in prey density.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379265
ISSN:	0029-8549
Additional Keywords:	Antarctica, predatory mite, attack rates, quantitative electrophoresis, Gamasellus, Cryptopygus
Date made live:	16 Apr 2019 10:40 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/522858

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