FOOD SEEKING AND SURVIVAL IN PREDACEOUS COCCINELLID LARVAE

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Abstract
Survival of Adalia bipunctata (L.) emerging from eggs laid some distance from prey locations, depended on the ability or the larvae to reach a prey location on a host plant. Distances between egg clusters and prey locations, when less than 63 cm in laboratory cages, had little effect on larval survival. Pathways used by a larva to prey was more important than distance. Larvae that had access to prey via pathways, reached prey as distant as 63 cm from eclosion sites.Cannibalistic predation by these larvae on eggs increases their survival chances when prey are scarce.