Mn. Parajulee et al., FUNCTIONAL-RESPONSE OF LYCTOCORIS-CAMPESTRIS (F) ADULTS - EFFECTS OF PREDATOR SEX, PREY SPECIES, AND EXPERIMENTAL HABITAT, Biological control, 4(1), 1994, pp. 80-87
The functional response of Lyctocoris campestris (F.) (Heteroptera: An
thocoridae) to Plodia interpunctella Hubner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae),
Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), and Oryzaephil
us surinamensis (L.) (Coleoptera: Cucujidae) was determined. Each sex
of the predator was evaluated in experimental arenas with and without
shelled corn to determine the role of prey species and habitat in pred
ation. Its rate of predation on a given prey species was measured by e
xposing a single predator to one of eight prey densities (2, 4, 8, 12,
16, 24, 32, and 40) in a 118-ml glass arena over a 24-h period. Both
sexes of the predator showed a typical Type II functional response, wi
th the Holling disk equation as an acceptable model, for all three pre
y species in both corn and noncorn situations. Analysis of variance fo
r the entire experiment indicated that prey density contributed signif
icantly to predator response (P = 0.0001), and that females killed mor
e prey than males, but this was marginally significant (P = 0.07). Bot
h sexes showed a higher response when corn was absent and both showed
differential responses to prey species. The relative response of femal
es to prey was P. interpunctella > T. castaneum > O. surinamensis, whe
reas the response of males was P. interpunctella > O. surinamensis > T
. castaneum. Instantaneous rate of prey discovery did not differ among
treatments, indicating that search strategy was less important than h
andling time in predatory response.