Cannibalism among same-aged nymphs of the omnivorous predator Dicyphus errans (Hemiptera: Miridae) is affected by food availability and nymphal density

Cannibalism, the act of eating an individual of the same species has been little studied in omnivorous insect predators. Dicyphus errans (Wolff) (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a generalist omnivorous predator that commonly occurs in tomato greenhouses and field crops in the Mediterranean basin. In this work cannibalism among same-aged neonate nymphs of D. errans was studied when 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 individuals were placed in a Petri dish along with or without heterospecific prey. Although nymphs were unable to complete their development in the absence of prey they survived longer when there were initially 2 individuals per dish than in any other treatment including a single individual. This may indicate that cannibalism in this predator has positive effect on nymphal survival, which however was not the case at higher densities. The presence of heterospecific prey increased nymphal survival and individuals were as equally successful in completing their development as when kept singly. Developmental time in all the treatments was very similar. Adult weight of both females and males was significantly greater when a nymph was reared alone and similar in all the other treatments. The results indicate that cannibalism occurs among neonates of D. errans if heterospecific prey is scarce and has a negative effect on adult weight when heterospecific prey is abundant. This should be considered in studies on enhancing the biocontrol efficiency or mass rearing of this predator.