Life table characteristics of Macrolophus caliginosus preying upon Tetranychus urticae

The life table characteristics of the polyphagous mirid Macrolophus caliginosus Wagner (Heteroptera: Miridae) preying on various stages of Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) with tomato as host plant were described at 22 °C. The following average parameters were obtained: Female longevity: 28.7 days; fecundity: 0.7 eggs/female/day; egg mortality: 2.6%; pre‐oviposition period: 5.5 days; oviposition period: 18.1 days; post‐oviposition period: 3.2 days; juvenile development time: 26.8 days; juvenile mortality: 34.9%; and sex ratio (♀/(♀+♂)) 0.46. Life table parameters were estimated as net reproduction rate ( R 0 ): 6.15; intrinsic rate of increase ( r m ): 0.031 day −1 ; finite rate of increase (≤): 1.032; mean generation time ( T c ): 58.17 days; and doubling time ( T 2 ) 22.2 days. The parameters obtained were in accordance with those reported for M. caliginosus fed on another mite species ( T. turkestani Ugarov & Nikolski (Acari: Tetranychidae)). However, compared to the performance of M. caliginosus fed on common glasshouse insect pests, a diet consisting of only mites appeared to be inferior. However, being a voracious predator, M. caliginosus may be a valuable addition to existing methods of mite control.