The Role of Habitat Complexity in Ladybug functional responses
Mentor/s
James Loving Lichtenstein
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
How predator density predicts how much prey they eat is a huge concern for ecology. Interactions among individual predators can affect how this works. For example, larger predators might attack smaller predators, decreasing how much the whole population eats. Size differences among predators might change how individuals forage, causing individual foraging behavior to not predict foraging behavior at higher densities. To test this, I counted how many Ephestia kuehniella moth eggs Hippodamia convergens ladybugs ate in petri dishes alone and whether their size affected this. Then I compared this to how many eggs these predators ate in pairs. This allowed me to measure how much differences in their size caused them to eat less. My lab and I are still analyzing the data. My poster will display these results and explain how they might be used to better predict the foraging of predator populations.
College and Major available
Biology
Academic Level
Undergraduate student
Location
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building University Commons
Start Day/Time
4-25-2025 12:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-25-2025 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Prize Categories
Most Scholarly Impact or Potential, Best Visuals, Most Creative
The Role of Habitat Complexity in Ladybug functional responses
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building University Commons
How predator density predicts how much prey they eat is a huge concern for ecology. Interactions among individual predators can affect how this works. For example, larger predators might attack smaller predators, decreasing how much the whole population eats. Size differences among predators might change how individuals forage, causing individual foraging behavior to not predict foraging behavior at higher densities. To test this, I counted how many Ephestia kuehniella moth eggs Hippodamia convergens ladybugs ate in petri dishes alone and whether their size affected this. Then I compared this to how many eggs these predators ate in pairs. This allowed me to measure how much differences in their size caused them to eat less. My lab and I are still analyzing the data. My poster will display these results and explain how they might be used to better predict the foraging of predator populations.
Students' Information
Alexa Matkiwsky - Biology major- 2026 graduate
Kyle Maggio- Biology Major - 2026 Graduate
Arya Alla- biology major - 2026 Graduate