Pervez Ahmad
Ladybird Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226 007, India.
J Insect Sci. 2005;5:5. doi: 10.1093/jis/5.1.5.
The functional response parameters and patterns of three coccinellid predators, Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Propylea dissecta, and Coccinella transversalis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were evaluated to find out how these predators respond at two different prey species across various prey densities levels. All three predators exhibited a decelerating curve Type II response determined by a logistic regression model. The linear reciprocal transformation of Holling's disc equation was used to further evaluate the parametric values. C. sexmaculata responded maximally, followed by C. transversalis and P. dissecta, in terms of consumption of the aphids, Aphis craccivora and Myzus persicae, with suitable values of coefficient of attack rates and handling times on these prey species. Differences in handling times were found to be significant within and between the predatory species on both prey species indicating that predators respond differentially to prey species. Differences in coefficients of attack rates, however, did not vary significantly in most of the treatments. The potential role of these predators in biocontrol of A. craccivora and M. persicae suggests that C. sexmaculata is the best predator for the management of both prey species, particularly A. craccivora. However, further field based studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
评估了三种瓢虫捕食者，即六斑月瓢虫、四斑小瓢虫和横带瓢虫（鞘翅目：瓢虫科）的功能反应参数和模式，以了解这些捕食者在不同猎物密度水平下对两种不同猎物物种的反应。所有三种捕食者均表现出由逻辑回归模型确定的减速曲线II型反应。使用霍林圆盘方程的线性倒数变换进一步评估参数值。就对豆蚜和桃蚜的捕食量而言，六斑月瓢虫的反应最大，其次是横带瓢虫和四斑小瓢虫，它们对这些猎物物种的攻击率系数和处理时间值合适。在两种猎物物种上，捕食性物种内部和之间的处理时间差异均显著，这表明捕食者对猎物物种的反应不同。然而，在大多数处理中，攻击率系数的差异并不显著。这些捕食者在对豆蚜和桃蚜的生物防治中的潜在作用表明，六斑月瓢虫是管理这两种猎物物种，特别是豆蚜的最佳捕食者。然而，需要进一步的田间研究来证实这一假设。
