Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 51 (1), pp. 123–132 (2016) DOI: 10.1556/038.51.2016.1.11 0238–1249/$ 20.00 © 2016 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Performance of Five Species of Phytoseiid Mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) on Bactrocera zonata Eggs (Diptera: Tephritidae) as a Factitious Food F. M. MOMEN 1 * , ABD-ELRADY K. NASR 1 , ABD-ELSATAR M. METWALLY 2 , Y. A. MAHMOUD 1 and K. M. SALEH 1 1 Pests and Plant Protection Department, National Research Centre (NRC), 31 El-Bohoth Street, 12311 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt 2 Department of Agricultural Zoology and Nematology, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (Received: 7 September 2015; accepted: 3 November 2015) Development, survival and reproduction of the generalist predatory mites, Amblyseius largoen- sis (Muma), Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes), Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias-Henriot), Proprioseiopsis kadii (El-Halawany and Abdel-Samad) and Cydnosus negevi (Swirski and Amitai) were assessed when fed on eggs of Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) as a factitious food. For N. barkeri and P. kadii, the development was faster, while the reproduction was higher in N. barkeri and A. largoensis than for P. kadii. Survival of immatures of T. swirskii and C. negevi was low on eggs of B. zonata and all failed to develop be- yond the protonymphal stage. A total of 35.4, 31.2 and 19.6 eggs per female, respectively, were obtained when N. barkeri, A. lar- goensis and P. kadii were fed B. zonata eggs. A diet of the peach fruit fly eggs provided the longest female longevity and highest mean total fecundity, which resulted in the highest net reproductive rate (Ro=34.61 and 32.78) and doubling time (DT=1.53 and 1.60) for N. barkeri and A. largoensis, respectively. Keywords: factitious food, Bactrocera zonata, predatory phytoseiid mites, biology, demographic pa- rameters. The predatory mites, Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes 1948), Amblyseius largoen- sis (Muma 1955), Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias-Henriot 1962), Proprioseiopsis kadii (El-Halawany and Abdel-Samad 1990) and Cydnosus negevi (Swirski and Amitai 1965) are an economically important biological control agents of several key pests in green- houses and open fields in most parts of the world, such as whiteflies, thrips as well as eriophyid and tetranychid mites (Kamburov, 1971; Bonde, 1989; Nomikou et al., 2001; Messelink et al., 2008; Momen, 2009). All predatory mite species tested are of type III generalist predators, representing that they can feed on various types of food including insect and mite prey, pollen, and honeydew (McMurtry and Croft, 1997). In recent years, more interest in the use of biological control to manage crop pests has led to an increase in companies producing natural enemies, including predators and * Corresponding author; e-mail: fatmomen@yahoo.com