Several natural enemies are known as predators of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, which is one of the most invasive pests worldwide and has developed high resistance to pesticides. However, biological control of this pest on tomato is often difficult because the plant’s glandular trichomes release substances that are toxic to arthropods and hinder the foraging of natural enemies. Therefore, adaptation of natural enemies to this crop is one of the selection criteria for potential biocontrol agents. We collected predatory mites from wild and feral tomato plants and found the species Amblyseius herbicolus and A. tamatavensis. Whereas the latter is known to feed on B. tabaci eggs, we investigated the ability of A. herbicolus to develop and reproduce when feeding on this prey stage, and assessed whether both species can feed and develop on B. tabaci crawlers. To verify the adaptation of these predators to tomato, we assessed their ability to disperse on tomato plants and their establishment on clean tomato plants with pollen as an alternative food. Finally, we evaluated whether the predators were effective in controlling B. tabaci on tomato plants with different pollen dosages as alternative food. We show that both predators fed and reproduced on B. tabaci immatures. A. herbicolus established and dispersed better on tomato plants supplemented with cattail pollen than A. tamatavensis and only A. herbicolus was able to control B. tabaci in two population dynamics experiments. Our results suggest that A. herbicolus is better adapted to tomato than A. tamatavensis and may therefore be a promising biocontrol agent on tomato.

烟粉虱的天敌是粉虱的天敌，烟粉虱是世界上最具入侵性的害虫之一，并且对杀虫剂具有很高的抗药性。然而，对番茄上的这种害虫进行生物防治通常很困难，因为植物的腺毛会释放对节肢动物有毒的物质并阻碍天敌的觅食。因此，天敌对该作物的适应是潜在生物防治剂的选择标准之一。我们从野生和野生番茄植物中收集了捕食性螨虫，并发现了 Amblyseius herbicolus 和 A. tamatavensis。尽管已知后者以烟粉虱卵为食，但我们研究了草烟粉虱在捕食该猎物阶段时发育和繁殖的能力，并评估了这两个物种是否都能以烟粉虱爬虫为食和发育。为了验证这些捕食者对番茄的适应能力，我们评估了它们在番茄植株上传播的能力以及它们在以花粉作为替代食物的干净番茄植株上的定居能力。最后，我们评估了捕食者是否能有效控制番茄植株上的烟粉虱，并以不同的花粉剂量作为替代食物。我们发现这两种捕食者都以未成熟的烟粉虱为食和繁殖。 A. herbicolus 在补充了香蒲花粉的番茄植株上比 A. tamatavensis 更好地建立和传播，并且在两个种群动态实验中，只有 A. herbicolus 能够控制烟粉虱。我们的结果表明，A. herbicolus 比 A. tamatavensis 更适应番茄，因此可能是一种有前途的番茄生物防治剂。