Phytoseiidae mites are efficient predators, able to control pest mites and small arthropods in crops all over the world, using three biological control strategies: (i) augmentation, (ii) classical, and (iii) conservation. This paper focuses on the latter strategy. Most of those predatory mite species are generalist predators; they are naturally present in agro-ecosystems both on crops and adjacent natural vegetation. Because of such characteristics, their occurrence is usually associated with the use of fewer pesticides, providing relief to ecosystem services. As a first baseline for managing their occurrence in agro-ecosystems, a review of the present knowledge of plants and predatory mite interactions and predator dispersal ability is proposed. In addition, based on the author's own occurrence database, the study aims at analyzing (i) plant traits and the potential co-evolutionary relationships between plants and predatory mite species and (ii) how this can be used to forecast favorable plants to key predatory mites. For this, some examples were taken, i.e., vine and citrus crops, and three species, Kampimodromus aberrans, Euseius stipulates, and Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri. The main conclusion is that the occurrence database can help in determining the probability of finding predatory mite species on crops and non-crop plants. However, because some elements are lacking, especially predatory mite density, plant traits and the true overall distribution, it is currently, difficult to associate plant traits and plant phylogeny to Phytoseiidae diversity. Additional meta-analyses in collaboration with plant specialists would be required. Finally, the paper presents some examples of agroecosystem management at different scales (intercropping, agroforestry, borders management, landscape).

Climate change (CC) clearly impacts food production, but risks on the climatic suitability of agricultural areas for vegetable crops, their pests and associated natural enemies are largely unexplored. Tomato, one of the most important vegetables in the world, is grown mostly outdoors, and may be severely impacted by CC. Farmers cultivating tomatoes need to adapt to an increase in the potential for outbreaks of pests favoured by CC and disruption of biological control, yet, no attempt has been made to simultaneously evaluate CC effects on a crop-pest-natural enemy system for tomato or any other crop. Here, we modelled the suitability of areas equipped with irrigation facilities (AEI) in 2050 for tomato, the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, a mite pest of tomato among more than 200 crops, and its key predator Phytoseiulus persimilis. We evaluated the suitability of AEI for tomato production under a 1.6 °C warming by 2050, within the targets of the Paris agreement. Projections show that climatic conditions become unsuitable for tomato production on 30%–100% of AEI for seven out of the 29 top tomato producing countries of the world. Model predictions suggest that two-spotted spider mite potential for outbreaks would increase substantially in nine countries in Europe, Africa and Asia, while biological control failures would occur globally. Model results have a significant relationship with growth rates for the three species measured in outdoor experiments, and farmer/expert perceptions on two-spotted spider mite outbreak severity captured via interviews. The expansion of AEI in other agricultural areas in the sub-Saharan Africa may offset losses of suitable land. However, several nations in the Middle East and South Asia with prevalent small scale agriculture would experience devastating impacts because of the unsuitability of conditions for tomato production and the potential increase in two-spotted spider mite outbreaks.

This study reports variation between populations of the phytoseiid mite Kampimodromus aberrans (Oudemans). The influence of seasons (summer and winter), different host plants, and localities on morphological variation was investigated to determine the reliability of the parameters usually used to distinguish species in the genus Kampimodromus . This study was conducted in southern France. The specimens examined consisted of three summer and three winter populations each collected from Celtis australis L., Quercus pubescens Willdenow (referred as Q. pubescens no. 1 in the text) and Corylus avellanae L., and three additional summer populations collected from each of Q. pubescens (referred as Q. pubescens no. 2 in the text), Vitis vinifera cv. Carignan and Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet-Sauvignon. Significant differences were observed between the winter and summer populations. Females of summer populations had longer setae than females of winter populations. However, these differences are usually very small. Greatest differences were observed within the population collected in summer on Q. pubescens no. 1 from which two distinct groups of specimens were distinguished. To determine if more than one species of Kampimodromus were present on this plant, measurements of other closely related species were also included in the analysis. It was concluded that all the females studied belong to K. aberrans . However, the setal variations observed raised the following questions. ( i ) What is the validity of other closely related species whose setal lengths differ only slightly from those of K. aberrans ? ( ii ) Are setal lengths useful characters to distinguish between closely related species in the genus Kampimodromus ?