Handling time and multi-prey capture by a water bug
1991
Cloarec, A.
Some aquatic heteropterans that spend a relatively long time handling a prey belostomatid Diplonychus indicus Venk. & Rao, can handle prey in such a way that they can capture another item without having to abandon their previous catch. Diplonychus indicus can handle up to three prey items simultaneously. Handling times and inter-catch intervals varied with the number of prey items in the queue. No significant differences between handling times for the first item in a queue were found whatever the length of the queue, but handling times were significantly longer for the first items in a queue than for the following items. Inter-catch intervals were significantly longer when prey were treated one by one than when there were more items in the queue. These data do not support Juliano's (1989, Anim. Behav., 38, 757-770) queueing model.
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