Table 4.

The proportion of each developmental stage of life-cycle for D. gallinae in the rearing system under the two photoperiods (Mean ± SD)

Dpc	12:12 h L:D					1:23 h L:D
	Eggs	Larvae	Protonymphs	Deutonymphs	Adults	Eggs	Larvae	Protonymphs	Deutonymphs	Adults
1	100	0	0	0	0	100	0	0	0	0
2	0	23.20 ± 8.60	76.80 ± 8.60	0	0	0	17.87 ± 3.40	82.13 ± 3.40	0	0
3	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	100	0	0
4	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	100	0	0
5	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	100	0	0
6	0	0	10.87 ± 6.59	89.13 ± 6.59	0	0	0	75.67 ± 18.54	24.33 ± 18.54	0
7	0	0	6.90 ± 4.37	93.10 ± 4.37	0	0	0	52.80 ± 26.17	47.20 ± 26.17	0
8	0	0	2.20 ± 2.25	93.73 ± 1.10	4.07 ± 1.22	0	0	23.73 ± 10.23	73.87 ± 8.36	2.40 ± 2.61
9	0.83 ± 0.06	0	0	78.60 ± 3.82	20.57 ± 3.87	2.70 ± 4.68	0	3.20 ± 3.87	77.47 ± 6.87	16.63 ± 3.40
10	3.33 ± 0.96	0	0	51.37 ± 9.50	45.30 ± 8.55	7.83 ± 3.51	0	0	58.53 ± 10.02	33.63 ± 10.75

Notes: The complete life-cycle of D. gallinae, from the egg to a new egg generation, was carried out using the in vivo feeding system. The initial cohort size was 300 eggs. The observations took place every 24 h for 10 days. At each observation, the number of mites at different stages was counted under a stereomicroscope and the rate of mites at different stages was calculated every day. Observations were continued until the mites had reached the adult stage and laid the first egg