Assessment of patch quality by ladybirds: Role of aphid and plant phenology

Foraging theory indicates that aphid predators should lay their eggs early in the development of an aphid colony. Hoverflies appear to respond to cues associated with the age of an aphid colony in assessing its quality for ov iposition. However, in the study reported here, ovipositing two-spot ladybi rds did not respond differentially to two cues, in various combinations, as sociated with the age of aphid colonies on herbaceous plants: (a) age struc ture of the aphid colony and (b) the age of the plant. Thus, this aphid pre dator appears to be mainly using cues associated with the presence of consp ecific larvae rather than those associated with aphids and/or plants when a ssessing patch quality.