The predation behavior and the prey size preferences of Antilochus coquebertii (Pyrrhocoridae) against Dysdercus koenigii (Pyrrhocoridae)

The pest status of the red cotton bug, Dysdercus koenigii (Fab.) has been changing due to the climatic changes, and appearances of new natural enemies in cotton agro-ecosystems. As a specialized predator of Dysdercus bugs, Antilochus coquebertii (Fab.) has been known, and is abundant now in cotton fields in Tamil Nadu, India. Therefore we investigated its predatory behavior and the preference against prey developmental stage in order to evaluate its performance as a natural enemy against D. koenigii. The predatory behavior of A. coquevertii adults consisted of seven feeding acts; i.e., arousal, approaching, capturing, rostral probing, paralyzing, feeding and post-feeding. Adult males were quicker than females in predatory acts including aroused, approached, captured, probed the prey by rostrum, paralyzed, and post-predatory behaviors. The predators exhibited an active hunting behavior, in which they seem to have used both olfactory and visual stimuli for orientation to the prey. The results of the prey-choice test exhibited that the second, third, fourth and fifth nymphal-stage and adult predator has a reproductive-stage preference to the second, third, fourth and fifth nymphal-stage and adult prey, respectively. The results implies that the synchronization between the occurrence of the prey and the predator could have significance for the control of the pest using the predator.