Direct and indirect top-down effects of previous contact with an enemy on the feeding behavior of blowfly larvae

We investigated the addition of a trophic level to a simple food web. Direct and indirect effects caused by the presence of a new species in the food web were quantified by estimating survival and consumption rates on the basal resource. We focused on a blowfly intraguild prey–predator system with v...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 2012-01, Vol.142 (1), p.71-77
Main Authors: Reigada, Carolina, Godoy, Wesley A. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Calliphoridae
cannibalism
Chrysomya albiceps
Chrysomya megacephala
Diptera
Food chains
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hymenoptera
Insecta
interaction effects
intraguild predation
Invertebrates
Nasonia vitripennis
Pteromalidae
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Summary:We investigated the addition of a trophic level to a simple food web. Direct and indirect effects caused by the presence of a new species in the food web were quantified by estimating survival and consumption rates on the basal resource. We focused on a blowfly intraguild prey–predator system with various ecological interactions taking place during the larval period. The experiments were designed to set Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as the intraguild prey and Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) as the intraguild predator and/or cannibal. The generalist pupal parasitoid Nasonia vitripennis (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) was introduced into the system during a non‐susceptible life stage of the interacting blowfly species. The cascading parasitoid effects induced behavioral changes in the blowfly larvae, increasing the impact of intraguild predation and cannibalism on blowfly survival. The results suggest that blowfly larvae can change their feeding behavior in response to the presence of a parasitoid.
ISSN:0013-8703
1570-7458
DOI:10.1111/j.1570-7458.2011.01195.x