Are predators rare?

Predators are usually thought to be rarer (in the sense of having lower pop ulation densities) than non-predators. Recent analyses have suggested that this is not the case because a decline in species richness compensates for the well-known decline in number of individuals with increasing trophic ran k. I show that a variety of invertebrate communities contain more species o f predators than would be expected from the number of predatory individuals . This is not due to differences in dominance or taxonomic resolution betwe en predatory and non-predatory guilds, and implies that predators are indee d relatively rare. I suggest that patterns of energy flow and body size mak e it likely that there will be a higher proportion of predatory species tha n individuals in a community, provided that predators have moderately speci alized diets.