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Consumption rates of Viola arvensis seeds (% out of N = 50 seeds) ± SE, according to substrate type of three species of ground beetles: Amara similata, Poecilus cupreus and Harpalus dimidiatus. Seed consumption rate was affected by ground beetle species (p < 0.0001) and by substrate (p = 0.001)
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Seed bank control is the mainspring of agricultural management practices. Using weeds seeds natural predators as a weed control strategy can be a valuable alternative to herbicide use. Among natural predators, ground beetles (Coleoptera, family Carabidae) have been claimed to be one of the most important invertebrate seeds predators in agroecosyste...
Citations
... Banyak faktor yang akan menentukan dan mempengaruhi keanekaragaman dan kelimpahan kumbang Carabidae di kawasan pertanian (Bennewicz & Barczak, 2020). Keanekaragaman spesies yang luas dengan persyaratan lingkungan yang berbeda-beda juga memberikan dampak penemuan spesies di kawasan pertanian (Deroulers et al., 2020), meskipun dapat berpindah dari habitat non-tanaman yang berdekatan (Gobbi et al., 2018). ...
While the importance of biological control for crop production is widely recognized, research on how farmers view predatory insects in eradicating pests on agricultural land is still rare. Although there is much ecological research on predatory beetles as part of biological control, little social research has been conducted on the critical level of understanding of biological control and the organisms involved. This research examines farmers' understanding of using predatory beetles as a biological control concept on agricultural land in Gunung Batu Village, East OKU Regency. Therefore, this research aims to see how farmers' skills are in managing integrated pest control using predatory Coleoptera beetles in managing rice cultivation. The research results show that farmers still use predatory beetles as part of controlling pest populations on agricultural land. Farmers consider predatory beetles to prevent pest outbreaks that can harm quality rice production. So, farmers can build a network of farmers so they can learn from each other and share local knowledge. Apart from that, the results obtained from integrated pest control, farmers can experience positive results and can positively influence farmers' perceptions of natural enemies of agricultural pests. Keywords: Agricultural pests, Coleoptera beetles, biological control, predators
... Predation on Dipteran eggs, such as those of the cabbage root fly, has been exaggerated in previous work (El-Danasoury et al., 2017;El-Danasoury and Iglesias-Piñeiro, 2018). Carabid foraging on some coleopteran pest larvae is indicated by scattered evidence (Deroulers et al., 2020;Gareau et al., 2020;Halimov, 2020;Oliveira-Hofman et al., 2020;Cividanes, 2021). Some evidence for pest lepidopteran control has been discovered in North America (Floate and Hervet, 2017;Knodel and Shrestha, 2018). ...
Ground beetles (Carabid beetles) may be found in virtually all of the world's habitats. They are one of the three most diverse families of extant beetles, with 34,275 species documented, and they serve as vital ecological markers in all environments. Edaphic living beetles catch and eat a wide variety of arthropods that live in the soil. In the case of weeds, most of the ground beetles eat their seeds and help regulate their populations. The findings of a field study in agrocenoses in SouthEast Kazakhstan from 2019 to 2020 are presented in this article. Twenty-seven ground beetle species from 9 genera were discovered as a consequence of the study. 670 soil traps yielded a total of 1012 beetles. Polytopic mesophilic beetles provide the foundation of the agrocenoses fauna. Hygrophils, mesophiles, and eurybionts are among the beetles found in irrigated areas, as are mixed and herbivorous species. The Carabidae family of beetles is the most numerous in fields and steppe settings. As a result, mixed-diet beetles can be found depending on the habitat and air temperature. The species of beetles in all fields in the investigation area are in accordance with the insects' complex. During the growth season, the diet of beetles shifts: predatory beetles take precedence initially, followed by mixed-diet beetles.
... The red point/s shows the data from field "WR19," as shown in Figure 5 been used to infer bird-seed feeding interaction strengths (Pocock et al., 2012). If new experiments are required to parameterize the models, it is strongly recommended that standardized experimental approaches should be used (Deroulers et al., 2020), thus enabling results from multiple experiments to be comparable. ...
• Ecological networks are valuable for ecosystem analysis but their use is often limited by a lack of data because many types of ecological interaction, for example, predation, are short-lived and difficult to observe or detect. While there are different methods for inferring the presence of interactions, they have rarely been used to predict the interaction strengths that are required to construct weighted, or quantitative, ecological networks.
• Here, we develop a trait-based approach suitable for inferring weighted networks, that is, with varying interaction strengths. We developed the method for seed-feeding carabid ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) although the principles can be applied to other species and types of interaction.
• Using existing literature data from experimental seed-feeding trials, we predicted a per-individual interaction cost index based on carabid and seed size. This was scaled up to the population level to create inferred weighted networks using the abundance of carabids and seeds from empirical samples and energetic intake rates of carabids from the literature. From these weighted networks, we also derived a novel measure of expected predation pressure per seed type per network.
• This method was applied to existing ecological survey data from 255 arable fields with carabid data from pitfall traps and plant seeds from seed rain traps. Analysis of these inferred networks led to testable hypotheses about how network structure and predation pressure varied among fields.
• Inferred networks are valuable because (a) they provide null models for the structuring of food webs to test against empirical species interaction data, for example, DNA analysis of carabid gut regurgitates and (b) they allow weighted networks to be constructed whenever we can estimate interactions between species and have ecological census data available. This permits ecological network analysis even at times and in places when interactions were not directly assessed.
... If these models were extended to other organisms, there may be a lack of data in the literature, although an allometric model of handling time has previously been used to infer bird-seed feeding interaction strengths (Pocock et al., 2012). If new experiments are required to parameterise the models, it is strongly recommended that standardised experimental approaches should be used (Deroulers, Gauffre, Emeriau, Harismendy, & Bretagnolle, 2020), thus enabling results from multiple experiments to be comparable. ...
Ecological networks are valuable for ecosystem analysis but their use is often limited by a lack of data because many types of ecological interaction, e.g. predation, are short-lived and difficult to observe or detect. There are different methods for inferring the presence of interactions, which we lack methods to predict interaction strengths and so use weighted network analysis.
Here, we develop a trait-based approach suitable for creating quantitative networks, i.e. with varying interaction strengths. We developed the method for seed-feeding carabid ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) although the principles can be applied to other interactions.
We used existing literature data from experimental seed-feeding trials to predict a per-individual interaction cost index based on carabid and seed size with frequency-dependent prey selection and assuming bottom up control. This was scaled up to the population level to create predicted inferred weighted networks using the abundance of carabids and seeds in samples from arable fields and energetic intake rates of carabids from the literature. From these weighted networks, we also calculated a novel measure of predation pressure.
We applied it to existing ecological survey data from 255 arable fields with carabid data from pitfall traps and plant seeds from seed rain traps. Analysis of these inferred networks led to testable hypotheses about how networks and predation pressure varied amongst fields.
Inferred networks are valuable because (i) they provide null models for the structuring of food webs to test against empirical species interaction data, e.g. DNA analysis of carabid gut regurgitates, and (ii) they allow weighted inferred networks to be constructed whenever we can estimate interactions between species and have ecological census data available. This would permit network analysis even at times and in places when interactions were not directly assessed.
... Carabids morphological traits, as well as climatic condi- tions may impact on their consumption rate (Honek et al., 2006;Rusch et al., 2015;Russell et al., 2017). Thus, we used stan- dardized experimental conditions (Deroulers et al., 2017), and selected two morphological traits of carabids, namely body size and the ratio of mandible length to labrum width (ML/ LW), which are strongly related to feeding habits of carabid beetles (Forsythe, 1983). Thus, we verified whether the ratio ML/LW and body mass explained variation in seed consump- tion. ...
Seedbank control has been the cornerstone of agricultural management practices. Regulating weeds by using their predators, as a weed control strategy, may be a prerequisite of decreasing herbicide use, and has thus attracted much research investigating the possible contribution of both vertebrates and invertebrates as weed seed predators. Carabid beetles are considered as one of the most important invertebrate seed predators in agroecosystems. We aimed at investigating carabid beetle preferences to a single prey type, seeds of Viola arvensis . We measured the consumption of seeds in 28 species of carabid beetles, under controlled experimental conditions. Two main tribes are identified in tested species, Harpalini with 12 species and Pterostichini with ten species. We found no relationships between species body mass and Viola ’s seed consumption, nor with the ratio between mandible length and labrum width (ML/LW). However, trends became significant with the ratio ML/LW when restricting these analyses to species that ate at least five seeds. In addition, we detected a positive and significant relationship between consumption rate and occurrence in trapping sessions over the last 3 years. These results are in favor of weed seeds control by carabids. Clear limits of this study are the use of a single seed species and under control conditions. This experimentation calls for additional studies to check for consistencies in consumption against seed species.
