Abstract: Three kinds of diets, i.e., two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, Camellia oleifera Abel pollen, and mould mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank), were used to feed Euseius nicholsi (Ehara et Lee) in laboratory at 25 ℃ and 80％ RH to study the effects of these diets on the development and reproduction of E. nicholsi. The E. nicholsi could prey on T. putrescentiae egg, but could not complete its natural development due to the deficiency of the egg. Other two diets were the favorable foods for the normal growth and reproduction of E. nicholsi. The life cycle duration, longevity, oviposition duration, and average lifetime fecundity of the adult female E. nicholsi fed with C. oleifera pollen and T. urticae were 618 d, 2479 d, 1672 d and 2303, and 567 d, 2572 d 1817 d and 2538, respectively. The quantity of the experimental E. nicholsi populations fed with these two diets all showed an increasing trend, with the population tendency index being the highest (I=1428) for the population fed with C. oleifera pollen and the double population time being the shortest (t=35201 days) for the population fed with T. urticae.

Key words: Castanea mollissima, CO₂ emission, fertilization, water-soluble organic C (WSOC).