Effect of plants on the searching efficiency of a generalist predator: the importance of predator‐prey spatial association

Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata - Tập 83 Số 1 - Trang 1-10 - 1997
Moshe Coll1,2, L. A. Smith3, Richard L. Ridgway1
1Insect Biocontrol Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
2Present address: Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel
3Department of Entomology University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

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AbstractIn most studies of tritrophic interactions, the effect of plants on predators is confounded with changes in prey and predator behaviors after an encounter event. Here, we estimate how the effect of plants on prey distribution (in the absence of the predator) and on predator foraging behavior (in the absence of prey) may influence predation rate of Orius insidiosus (Say) (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) in 11 plant by prey species combinations. The within‐leaf distributions of O. insidiosus and its prey overlapped most on bean plants. The predator's foraging behavior (e.g., walking speed, turning rate) also differed among plant species. Simulations, using the prey distribution data and predator's foraging patterns on leaf surfaces of each plant species, show that, overall, the searching efficiency of O. insidiosus was higher on leaves of bean and corn than of tomato. However, the predator's searching efficiency was not consistent within plant species. Thus, the combined effect of plants directly on the predator and indirectly through the prey influenced the predator's searching efficiency.

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Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata

Tập 83 Số 1

1-10

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