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journal1 ›› 2018, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (1): 59-64.DOI: 10.16409/j.cnki.2095-039x.2018.01.006

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Effects of Larval Consumption of Diets of Aphids and Non-sibling Conspecific Eggs on Adult Predation Behaviors in Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera:Coccinellidae)

SHA Xianlan, SHEN Xinlan, Shu Xiaohan, MENG Ling, LI Baoping   

  1. Key Laboratory of Management for Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Ministry of Agriculture/College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
  • Received:2017-09-29 Online:2018-02-08 Published:2018-02-06

Abstract: Many studies have indicated that consumption of only non-sibling conspecifics can have negative impacts on developmental and reproductive performances, yet few studies have focused on whether consuming the diet of aphids and non-sibling conspecifics at the larval stage affects predation behaviors at the adulthood. This study was to investigate in laboratory whether consumption of some conspecific eggs in addition to the bird cherry-oat aphid Rhopalosiphum padi at larval stages influenced predation behaviors of Harmonia axyridis at the adult stage. Three diets were provided as food to ladybird larvae, only aphids (the control), aphids plus small amount of non-sibling conspecific eggs to each instar larvae (dispersive egg consumption), or aphids plus a large amount of non-sibling conspecific eggs exclusively to the 4th instar larvae (aggregative egg consumption). Predation behaviors of adults by sex on three consecutive days after emergence were recorded. The analyses of effects of diet by sex showed that the diet treatment did not have a statistical effect on adult body size, total time of predation, frequency of attacks, and latency to the first attack, in both male and female. The results suggest that consumption of non-sibling eggs of either a small amount by each instar or large amount by only the final instar may have negligible effect on predation behaviors of male and female adults in H. axyridis.

Key words: cannibalism, intraspecific predation, Harmonia axyridis, predation behaviors, Coccinellidae

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