As predator-prey interactions are inherently size-dependent, predator and prey body sizes are key to understanding their feeding relationships. To describe predator-prey size relationships (PPSRs) when predators can consume prey larger than themselves, we conducted field observations targeting three aquatic hemipteran bugs, and assessed their body masses and those of their prey for each hunting...

The modeling investigation in this paper discusses the system level effects of a toxicant on a three species food chain system. In the models, we have assumed that the presence of top predator reduces the predatory ability of the intermediate predator. The stability analysis of the models is carried out and the sufficient conditions for the existence and extinction of the populations under the ...

Interference coloration, in which the perceived colour varies predictably with the angle of illumination or observation, is extremely widespread across animal groups. However, despite considerable advances in our understanding of the mechanistic basis of interference coloration in animals, we still have a poor understanding of its function. Here, I show, using avian predators hunting dynamic vi...

Predators may affect prey population growth and community diversity through density mediated lethal and trait mediated non-lethal effects that influence phenotypic traits of prey. We tested experimentally the roles of thinning the density of prey (lethality) in the absence of predator cues and density and trait mediated effects (lethality + intimidation) of predatory midge Corethrella appendicu...

objective: dyslipidemia and insulin resistance (ir), occurring in most infertile women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (pcos), increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (cvd) and type 2 diabetes. this study aimed to assess the relationships between lipoprotein ratios and ir in pcos women. materials and methods: thirty six infertile women with pcos selected based on androgen excess society (a...

Classical predator-prey models, such as Lotka-Volterra, track the abundance of prey, but ignore its quality. Yet, in the past decade, some new and occasionally counterintuitive effects of prey quality on food web dynamics emerged from both experiments and mathematical modeling. The underpinning of this work is the theory of ecological stoichiometry that is centered on the fact that each organis...

The present article deals with the inter specific competition and intra-specific competition among predator populations of a prey-dependent three component food chain model consisting of two competitive predator sharing one prey species as their food. The behaviour of the system near the biologically feasible equilibria is thoroughly analyzed. Boundedness and dissipativeness of the system are e...

1. Foraging underlies the ability of all animals to acquire essential resources and thus provides a critical link to understand population dynamics. A key issue is how variation in foraging behaviour affects foraging efficiency and predator–prey interactions in spatially heterogeneous environments. However, there is very little quantitative information available on this topic. 2. We evaluated t...

Agricultural pest suppression is an important ecosystem service that may be threatened by the loss of predator diversity. This has stimulated interest in the relationship between predator biodiversity and biological control. Multiple-predator studies have shown that predators may complement or interfere with one another, but few experiments have determined if the resulting effects on prey are c...