DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mgqnk9964
title: Cold tolerance of biological control agents Amblydromalus limonicus and Amblyseius degenerans

description: Knowledge about cold tolerance of non-native biological control agents is
 critical to avoid permanently establishing them in new temperate areas.
 The cold tolerance of the predatory mites, A. limonicus and A. degenerans,
 was investigated in the laboratory to assess their establishment potential
 in northern Europe, particularly Sweden. The lethal time of A. degenerans
 declined steeply from 5°C to 0°C and was almost zero at -5°C. The lethal
 time of A. limonicus did not differ between 5°C and 0°C but was reduced at
 -5°C. For both species, LTime50 was longer for fed than for unfed mites.
 In the lethal temperature experiments, a temperature as low as -17.75°C
 was required to achieve a 100% mortality rate for A. limonicus,
 whereas most A. degenerans died at -8.5°C. LTemp50 was lower for A.
 limonicus (-9.8°C) than for A. degenerans (-0.1°C). Collectively, these
 findings suggest that A. degenerans is unlikely to be established in
 Sweden but that A. limonicus is more cold-tolerant. This highlights the
 risk associated with releasing A. limonicus in Sweden, due to
 concerns about potential establishment.
description: The dataset was collected during laboratory experiments conducted
 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and has been
 processed by a series of generalized linear models using package stats in
 R version 4.2.1.
description: # Cold tolerance of biological control agents *Amblydromalus limonicus*
 and *Amblyseius degenerans* This readme file describes the contents of 14
 .txt files used to perform the analyses. Information about how the
 experiments were conducted can be found in the associated manuscript.  ##
 Description of the data and file structure List of contents: * Lethal time
 degenerans.txt * Lethal time limonicus.txt * Lethal temperature
 degenerans.txt * Lethal temperature limonicus.txt * LTime50_deg_5fed.txt *
 LTime50_deg_5unfed.txt * LTime50_lim_5fed.txt * LTime50_lim_5unfed.txt *
 LTime50_lim_0fed.txt * LTime50_lim_0unfed.txt * LTime50_lim_-5fed.txt *
 LTime50_lim_-5unfed.txt * LTemp50_deg.txt * LTemp50_lim.txt ###
 Description of Lethal time degenerans.txt * Id: individual mite ID in each
 experiment * Species: the species being tested (*degenerans*) * Batch: the
 batch number (2 batches in total) * Temperature: the temperature regimes
 in the experiments (-5°C, 0°C, 5°C) * Treatment: the treatment specifying
 whether mites were fed or unfed * Number of days: the number of days until
 mite mortality ### Description of Lethal time limonicus.txt * Id:
 individual mite ID in each experiment * Species: the species being tested
 (*limonicus*) * Batch: the batch number (3 batches in total) *
 Temperature: the temperature regimes in the experiments (-5°C, 0°C, 5°C) *
 Treatment: the treatment specifying whether mites were fed or unfed *
 Number of days: the number of days until mite mortality ### Description of
 Lethal temperature degenerans.txt * Id: individual mite ID in each
 experiment * Species: the species being tested (*degenerans*) *
 Replications: the number of replications (5 in total) * Temperature: the
 temperature regimes in the experiments (-17.75°C, -13.13°C, -8.5°C,
 -3.88°C, 0.75°C, 3.88°C, 10°C) * Mortality: specifies whether a mite died
 after brief exposure to a given temperature ### Description of Lethal
 temperature limonicus.txt: * Id: individual mite ID in each experiment *
 Species: the species being tested (*limonicus*) * Replications: the number
 of replications (5 in total) * Temperature: the temperature regimes in the
 experiments (-17.75°C, -13.13°C, -8.5°C, -3.88°C, 0.75°C, 3.88°C, 10°C) *
 Mortality: specifies whether a mite died after brief exposure to a given
 temperature ### Description of LTime50\_deg\_5fed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*degenerans*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (5°C and fed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_deg\_5unfed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*degenerans*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (5°C and unfed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_5fed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (5°C and fed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_5unfed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (5°C and unfed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_0fed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (0°C and fed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_0unfed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (0°C and unfed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_-5fed.txt: * Species: the
 species being tested (limonicus) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (-5°C and fed) * Day: the cumulative number of days
 until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion of
 mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTime50\_lim\_-5unfed.txt: * Species:
 the species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temp_treat: the temperature and
 treatment combination (-5°C and unfed) * Day: the cumulative number of
 days until all the mites died * Prop_mortality: the cumulative proportion
 of mites that died (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 cumulative number of mites that died * Total: the total number of mites in
 the experiment ### Description of LTemp50\_deg.txt: * Species: the species
 being tested (*degenerans*) * Temperature: the temperature regimes ranging
 from 10°C to -17.75°C * Replication: the number of replications *
 Prop_mortality: the proportion of mites that died in each temperature
 regime (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the number of
 mites that died in each temperature regime * Total: the total number of
 mites in the experiment ### Description of LTemp50\_lim.txt: * Species:
 the species being tested (*limonicus*) * Temperature: the temperature
 regimes ranging from 10°C to -17.75°C * Replication: the number of
 replications * Prop_mortality: the proportion of mites that died in each
 temperature regime (calculated using Mortality and Total) * Mortality: the
 number of mites that died in each temperature regime * Total: the total
 number of mites in the experiment