Plant-mediated interactions between Tetranychus evansi and T. urticae spider mites - suppression test 4.

We infested all leaflets of the 3rd leaf of 29-days old tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum var Castlemart) with spider mites in three treatments: (1) 20 two to four days old adult Tetranychus evansi Viçosa-1 females, (2) 10 two to four days old adult Tetranychus urticae Santpoort-2 females, or (3) no infestation. These treatments lasted two days, after which we removed mites, eggs and web, and cut up to 10 leaf discs per plant from the previously infested leaflets. Then, we placed two to four days old adult Tetranychus evansi Viçosa-1 females individually on each leaf disc, and counted the number of eggs of each leaf disc after four days. These experiments were carried out in a climate room (25°C, 16 : 8 h light : dark, 60% RH).