Intraguild predation of green lacewing larvae (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) on spider eggs and spiderlings

Abstract

The Green Lacewing Mallada desjardinsi (Navas) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) is the common chrysopid in tea plantations of the Anamallais (southern India). Guava trees dispersed in tea plantations accommodate a large population of this predator. Seasonality and intraguild predation of this chrysopid was investigated between December 2014 and November 2015. Spider eggs and spiderlings were important prey for this predator. Mallada desjardinsi preferred 22% eggs of Chrysso nigra, 20% of Neoscona mukerjei, 11% of Chrysso argyrodiformis and Cyrtarachne sp. and below 10% of the other spider species recorded. This is the first intraguild predation studies of M. desjardinsi on tea.

Keywords

• chrysso nigra
• intraguild predation
• mallada desjardinsi
• neoscona mukerjei
• spiderlings.