Abstract

Based on morphological and molecular characters, a Neoseiulus species collected from southern China was identified as Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor), which was not recorded in China before 2012. However, the Chinese population of N. californicus has some unique biological features and its morphology is also somewhat different from those populations from outside China. In order to clarify if there was reproductive isolation or reduction in the reproductive rates between Chinese population and the commercial population of N. californicus (originated from California, USA), reproductive compatibility between the specimens of two different populations was evaluated under laboratory conditions to ascertain their conspecificity. Inter-population crosses showed there was no reproductive isolation between the Chinese population and the commercial population. The results confirmed that these two belong to the same species, in agreement with the results based on morphological and molecular identifications of the Chinese N. californicus.