Notes on Predatory Behaviour in Rhinacloa Forticornis (Hemiptera: Miridae)
T.W. Culliney*
Department of Entomology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CARJ.2.1.01
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Abstract:
Predatory behaviour in the phyline mirid, Rhinacloa forticornis Reuter, was observed in the laboratory. Jasmine flowers and bean pods infested with larval and adult thrips were exposed in petri dishes to nymphs and adults of the bug. Only thrips larvae were successfully attacked. The manner in which R. forticornis handled prey, particularly the mirid’s use of its fore tarsi to position and manipulate prey and its probing in different body regions, and the feeding process, involving the ingestion and egestion of fluids, and thus a potential role for extra-oral digestion of prey tissues, were suggestive of similar behaviours in predaceous Heteroptera. However, observations of apparently preferential feeding on vegetable matter in the presence of available prey suggested that phytophagy is an important, perhaps predominant, feeding mode in this plant bug, with predation occurring in nature in the absence of acceptable plant food.
Keywords:
Facultative Predation, Heteroptera, Nutritional Ecology, Plant Bugs, Thrips
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| Copy the following to cite this article: Culliney T. W. Notes on Predatory Behaviour in Rhinacloa forticornis (Hemiptera: Miridae). Curr Agri Res 2014;2(1). doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CARJ.2.1.01 |
| Copy the following to cite this URL: Culliney T. W. Notes on Predatory Behaviour in Rhinacloa forticornis (Hemiptera: Miridae). Curr Agri Res 2014;2(1). Available from: http://www.agriculturejournal.org/?p=772 |
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