searching efficiency (a') (attack rate) and handling time are two major components of natural enemies’ functional response and are usually used to evaluate their effectiveness. the age-specific searching efficiency of aphidoletes aphidimyza (rondani) was studied during its larval stage. the experiment was conducted in terms of age-specific functional response to the varying density (5, 1...

Nonconsumptive predator effects are widespread and include plasticity as well as general stress responses. Caged predators are often used to estimate nonconsumptive effects, and numerous studies have focused on the larval stages of animals with complex life cycles. However, few of these studies test whether nonconsumptive predator effects, including stress responses, are exclusively sublethal. ...

the stage specific functional response of the acarophagous ladybird beetle stethorus gilvifrons mulsant to varying densities of citrus brown mite eutetranychus orientalis (klein) eggs was examined in a simplified castor bean leaf arena under laboratory conditions. all stages of s. gilvifrons were individually isolated for 24 hours with different prey densities at 30âºc and a photoperiod of 14: ...

Previous investigations have demonstrated the importance of predator diet in chemically mediated antipredator behaviour. However, there are few data on responses to life-stage-specific predator diets, which could be important for animals like amphibians that undergo metamorphosis and must respond to different suites of predators at different life-history stages. In laboratory choice tests, we i...

1. Predator-mediated coexistence occurs when predation allows competitors to coexist, due to preferential consumption of a superior competitor relative to an inferior competitor. Differences between the native treehole mosquito (Aedes triseriatus) and the co-occurring Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) in anti-predatory larval behaviours account, in part, for the greater vulnerability of t...

Differential jumping performance in newly metamorphosed Blanchard’s cricket frogs Acris blanchardi (Anura: Hylidae) from fishand invertebrate-dominated ponds. Organisms that adopt phenotypically plastic anti-predator strategies during larval stages may incur fitness costs later in development. These costs are typically difficult to define in many species. The difficulty of identifying ecologica...