The suitability of the balsam woolly adelgid, Adelges piceae Ratzeburg (Hemiptera: Adelgidae) as an alternate mass rearing host for the adelgid predator, Sasajiscymnus tsugae Sasaji and McClure (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) was studied in the laboratory. This predator is native to Japan and has been introduced to eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière (Pinales: Pinaceae), forests through...

The evolution of aposematism, a phenomenon where prey species conspicuously advertise their unprofitability to predators, is puzzling. How did conspicuousness evolve, if it simultaneously increased the likelihood of an inexperienced predator to detect the prey and presumably kill it? Antiapostatic selection, where rare prey is predated relatively more often, is considered as another major diffi...

Trophic relationships, such as those between predator and prey or between pathogen and host, are key interactions linking species in ecological food webs. The structure of these links and their strengths have major consequences for the dynamics and stability of food webs. The existence and strength of particular trophic links has often been assessed using observational data on changes in specie...

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 ...

Functional response describes the number of prey or hosts attacked by a predator or parasitoid as a function of prey or host density. Using three different experimental designs, we found a linear functional response by two insect parasitoids (the pteromalid Pachycrepoideus vindemiae and the diapriid Trichopria drosophilae) to their hosts (the drosophilids Drosophila suzukii and D. melanogaster)...

Unique in the insect world for their extremely sedentary predatory behavior, pit-dwelling larval antlions dig pits, and then sit at the bottom and wait, sometimes for months, for prey to fall inside. This sedentary predation strategy, combined with their seemingly innate ability to detect approaching prey, make antlions unlikely candidates for learning. That is, although scientists have demonst...

Big-eyed bugs (Geocoris spp. Fallén, Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) are ubiquitous, omnivorous insect predators whose plant feeding behavior raises the question of whether they benefit or harm plants. However, several studies have investigated both the potential of Geocoris spp. to serve as biological control agents in agriculture and their importance as agents of plant indirect defense in nature. These...