Yael Argov, Martin Berkeley, Silvi Domeratzky, Eti Melamed - Israel Cohen Institute for Biological Control, Plant Production and Marketing Board, Citrus Division, POB 80 Bet Dagan, 50250

In this study we set out to identify indigenous pollen for small scale mass rearing of Neoseiulus californicus. From ca. 30 plant pollen evaluated, six species were found to be suitable: Zea mays, Quercus ithaburensis and four Pistacia species, P. atlantica, P. vera, P. lentiscus and P. palestina, the latter yielding the shortest duration of development and the highest fecundity. An improved method for monitoring development and fecundity of phytoseiid species on pollens using polyacrylamide gel (PAG) as a water source and barrier was evaluated. The proportion of replicates lost using the PAG method was substantially lower than the conventional wick method. Moreover the wick method took twice as long to complete each evaluation. We propose that the polyacrylamide gel method be adopted for quality control of phytoseiids reared by commercial insectaries.