Throughout the 1980s, reproductive success of the top-predator cod declined and stock sizes of the main prey species herring and especially sprat, important planktivorous predators in the system, increased substantially. Although the hydrographic conditions conducive for survival of early life stages improved during the 1990s, recruitment success of cod remained far below average. As clupeids h...

Emerging infectious diseases have been identified as threats to biodiversity, yet our understanding of the factors contributing to host susceptibility to pathogens within natural populations remains limited. It has been proposed that species interactions within communities affect host susceptibility to pathogens, thereby contributing to disease emergence. In particular, predation risk is a comm...

The hypothesis that size-selective predation and species-specific prey behaviours facilitate the coexistence between larvae of invasive Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and U.S.A.-native Ochlerotatus triseriatus (Say) was tested experimentally with the predator Corethrella appendiculata (Grabham).Larval behaviours associated with a higher risk of predation were identified, and prey behavioural response...

Larval fishes have a remarkable ability to sense and evade the feeding strike of a predator fish with a rapid escape manoeuvre. Although the neuromuscular control of this behaviour is well studied, it is not clear what stimulus allows a larva to sense a predator. Here we show that this escape response is triggered by the water flow created during a predator's strike. Using a novel device, the i...

The larval stage of most coral reef fishes is spent in the pelagic environment, potentially well away from the reef proper. Survival of this stage is tenuous, being mediated by factors such as food availability, predator abundance, and physical conditions. The complex biological and physical interactions of these factors can result in a seemingly stochastic larval supply that drives temporal an...

Variation in behavior, morphology and life history traits of larval anurans across predator gradients, and consequences of that variation, have been abundantly studied. Yet the functional link between morphology and burst-swimming speed is largely unknown. We conducted experiments with two divergent species of anurans, Scaphiopus holbrookii and Rana sphenocephala , to examine how behavior and m...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Predation potential of the dytiscid beetle, Rhantus sikkimensis Regimbart 1899 and the larvae of Toxorhynchites splendens Wiedemann 1819 occurring along with the larval stages of the mosquitoes in the annual lentic water bodies of Darjeeling was evaluated using the larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus Say 1823 as preys, in the laboratory under simulated natural conditions....

The life history of Enochrus quadripunctatus Herbst was studied in the laboratory. The duration of each developmental stage, larval behavior, and preimaginal mortality rate were determined. It takes the insect a total of 43 days from hatching to reach the adult stage, with a high mortality rate in the first stadium. The mortality rate decreases as the beetle passes through the immature sta...

This paper concerns with a new delayed predator–prey model with stage structure on prey, in which the immature prey and the mature prey are preyed by predator and the delay is the length of the immature stage. Mathematical analysis of the model equations is given with regard to invariance of non-negativity, boundedness of solutions, permanence and global stability and nature of equilibria. Our ...