We examined the impact of avian predators on the community of insects feeding on Lemmon’s willow, Salix lemmonii, at Carman Valley, California. Salix lemmonii supports a diverse assemblage of insect species that feed in either a concealed or an exposed manner on leaves by mining, tying, curling, galling, skeletonizing, or chewing. We tested the hypothesis that there are guild specific differenc...

In this paper, we introduce fractional order of a planar fractional prey-predator system with a nonmonotonic functional response and anti-predator behaviour such that the adult preys can attack vulnerable predators. We analyze the existence and stability of all possible equilibria. Numerical simulations reveal that anti-predator behaviour not only makes the coexistence of the prey and predator ...

Humans are altering biodiversity globally and infectious diseases are on the rise; thus, there is interest in understanding how changes to biodiversity affect disease. Here, we explore how predator diversity shapes parasite transmission. In a mesocosm experiment that manipulated predator (larval dragonflies and damselflies) density and diversity, non-intraguild (non-IG) predators that only cons...

12 Background: Predator assemblages can differ substantially in their topdown effects on 13 community composition and ecosystem function, but few studies have sought to explain 14 this variation in terms of the phylogenetic distance between predators. The effect of a local 15 predator assemblage will depend on three things – which predators tend to co-occur, how 16 similar their prey preference...

Recent research by Wilmers et al. shows that top predators might buffer some of the ecological effects of climate change. Top predators can regulate the structure of entire communities and dampen their variability; however, in their absence, prey populations are likely to fluctuate greatly owing to bottom-up factors. Restoring top predators to their natural environment could provide insurance a...

Biological control by natural enemies is a valuable ecosystem service. The predator community in crop field combination of predators dwelling the and those moving into it from surrounding landscape. former mainly affected management, latter more composition Yet, separate combined effects local landscape management on pest suppression have seldom been investigated. We set-up mesocosms within an ...

Toxic prey that signal their defences to predators using conspicuous warning signals are called 'aposematic'. Predators learn about the toxic content of aposematic prey and reduce their attacks on them. However, through regulating their toxin intake, predators will include aposematic prey in their diets when the benefits of gaining the nutrients they contain outweigh the costs of ingesting the ...

Marine predators will often perform diel and seasonal movements associated with specific habitats. In tropical areas, mesophotic coral reefs may be an important habitat type for many predators, but their use of these areas has rarely been investigated. We used results of acoustic telemetry and stable isotope analyses to investigate the diel and seasonal movements of Galapagos sharks Carcharhinu...

In Batesian mimicry a palatable mimic deceives predators by resembling an unpalatable model. The evolution of Batesian mimicry relies on the visual capabilities of the potential predators, as prey detection provides the selective force driving evolutionary change. We compared the visual capabilities of several potential predators to test predictions stemming from the hypothesis of Batesian mimi...

We analyzed stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to investigate the trophic structure of the subtidal food web around the Mingan Islands, northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada. All benthic consumers were enriched in 13C (mean δ13C of –17.1% ) compared to particulate organic matter (POM: –23.3% ). Nitrogen stable isotope ratios ranged from 6% to 14% and the organisms studied fell into ...