EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
European Journal of Environmental Sciences nabízí původní recenzované články z oblasti environmentálních věd, mnohdy inter- a transdisciplinární povahy se zvláštním zřetelem na evropské problémy. Časopis rovněž publikuje kritické shrnující texty a přehledy situace v oblasti ochrany životního prostředí v konkrétních regionech a zemích. Zaměřuje se na širokou škálu témat, jako například přímé a nepřímé interakce živých a neživých složek životního prostředí, interakce s lidskou společností nebo environmentální udržitelnost.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Vol 11 No 1 (2021), 5–11

Influence of intraspecific competition for food on the bodyweight of the adult aphidophagous ladybird, Coccinella transversalis

Ahmad Pervez, Rupali Sharma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23361964.2021.1
zveřejněno: 20. 06. 2021

Abstract

Aggregation of conspecific predators sharing a common prey, influences their bodyweights. We investigated the influence of intraspecific competition of adult ladybirds of Coccinella transversalis Fabricius on their bodyweight feeding on rusty plum aphid, Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas). Adult males and females consumed a significantly greater number of aphids with increase in predator-density, however, the aphid-consumption per predator declined with this increase. The weight gain per predator also decreased linearly with increase in the density of both male and female predators. This indicates that the weight-gain of the predator is a function of the prey consumed. The searching efficiency decreased with increase in predator density due to mutual inference. The mutual interference constants for adult male and female ladybirds were −0.419 and −0.546, respectively. The females consumed a greater number of aphids than males. The killing power of the ladybird denoted by the k-value increased curvilinearly with increase in predator density. We conclude that prey consumption is a function of body size and that the offspring of those that aggregate at low densities in prey-rich habitats develop into large adults.

klíčová slova: conspecific predator; Coccinella transversalis; intraspecific competition; ladybirds; numerical response

Creative Commons License
Influence of intraspecific competition for food on the bodyweight of the adult aphidophagous ladybird, Coccinella transversalis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

210 x 297 mm
vychází: 2 x ročně
cena tištěného čísla: 150 Kč
ISSN: 1805-0174
E-ISSN: 2336-1964

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