الفهرس 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The major obstacles to the successful implementation of biological control are the high cost and poor availability of natural enemies. By developing an effective storage method reduction in the costs and increasing of the availability will be achieved. In this study, we emphasized the importance of selecting the appropriate air temperature, water vapor condition and life stage when developing effective storage method for the predatory mite N. californicus for efficient use in the biological control program.
In preliminary experiment, larvae, protonymphs, deutonymphs, unmated adult females, mated adult females and adult males of N. californicus were stored at 5°C and relative humidity (RH) of 80% or 100%. The survival was significantly longer at 100%RH for all life stages. Adult mated females showed the longest survival. Post-storage reproduction of stored mated adult females was not affected by the storage up to 60 days at 5°C and 100%RH. The adult males that stored at 5°C and 100%RH for 20 days had similar reproduction ability to that of unstored males.
For improvement of the storage method for the mated adult females of N. californicus, a water vapor control system was developed. The system was able to create four different water vapor conditions independently at the same time with quick responses. To determine the optimum air temperature and water vapor pressure deficit (VPD) for the survival and post-storage reproduction of adult mated females. The females were stored at a different combination of low air temperature (0, 5, 10, and 15°C) and VPD (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 kPa). The result showed that air temperature of 5-10°C and VPD of 0.1 kPa was the best for storage of the mated adult females up to 30 days without any degradation in the survival and post-storage reproduction.