Eur. J. Entomol. 93 (2): 151-160, 1996
The influence of plant structure on searching behaviour in the ladybird, Scymnus nigrinus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)
- N/A
The foraging behaviour of all developmental stages of the ladybird, Scymnus nigrinus, when searching for its prey, Schizolachnus pineti, on pine trees was examined. Foraging was characterized by a high inter-individual variability but patterns did not differ significantly between larvae and adults. All stages spent most of their time searching on needles, on which their prey feeds, and remained mainly in the upper and outer parts of the plant which have a higher needle density in comparison with the interior plant parts. Older stages showed a higher voracity than those younger, but all had a similar predation success when attacking an individual prey. All stages spent a high amount of observation time feeding on honeydew from S. pineti.
Keywords: Scymnus nigrinus, Coccinellidae, Schizolachnus pineti, Lachnidae, developmental stage, plant structure, searching behaviour, foraging success, honeydew
Accepted: November 8, 1995; Published: August 1, 1996 Show citation
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.