Tomato plants are attacked by numerous pests and diseases, including the tomato russet mite Aculops lycopersici and powdery mildew, Oidium neolycopersici. Natural enemies of tomato pests are often hindered by the tomato trichomes, while russet mites live under and among these leaf hairs and are therefore protected from these enemies. To find natural enemies that are adapted to tomato and its trichomes, we collected a predatory mite, Amblyseius herbicolus, and an iolinid mite, cf. Homeopronematus anconai sp. nov., from tomato plants in the field. We investigated their potential as biological control agents for pests in this crop. We show that both predators were able to feed and reproduce on russet mites. Subsequently, we show that the iolinid effectively controlled tomato russet mites and powdery mildew on isolated tomato plants, whereas A. herbicolus disappeared from the plants. Altogether, our results show that cf. H. anconai sp. nov. is an efficient biocontrol agent of two key pests on tomato plants. Our results thus contribute to the recent trend of using predators that are effective in controlling both a pest and a pathogen, a promising new strategy for biological crop protection.

番茄植物受到多种害虫和疾病的侵袭，包括番茄赤螨 Aculops lycopersici 和白粉病 Oidium neolycopersici。番茄害虫的天敌常常受到番茄毛的阻碍，而赤螨生活在这些叶毛之下和之中，因此可以免受这些天敌的侵害。为了找到适应番茄及其毛状体的天敌，我们收集了捕食性螨虫 Amblyseius herbicolus 和 iolinid 螨虫，参见。 Homeoponematus anconai sp.十一月，来自田间的番茄植株。我们研究了它们作为该作物害虫生物防治剂的潜力。我们证明这两种捕食者都能够以赤螨为食和繁殖。随后，我们发现 iolinid 可有效控制分离番茄植株上的番茄赤螨和白粉病，而 A. herbicolus 从植株上消失。总而言之，我们的结果表明，参见。 H. anconai sp。十一月是番茄植物上两种主要害虫的有效生物防治剂。因此，我们的研究结果有助于最近使用可有效控制害虫和病原体的捕食者的趋势，这是一种有前途的生物作物保护新策略。