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Detection of food in immature and adult stages of water scavenger beetle, Hydrophilus acuminatus (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2021

Toshio Inoda Open the ORCID record for Toshio Inoda [Opens in a new window]
Toshio Inoda*
Affiliation:
Shibamata 5-17-10, Katsushika, Tokyo125-0052, Japan
*
*Corresponding author. Email: inoda@kxb.biglobe.ne.jp
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Abstract

The water scavenger beetle, Hydrophilus acuminatus (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae), has two types of feeding modes: carnivorous during the larval stage and omnivorous during the adult stage. To investigate how the beetles detect food, larvae were provided with pond snails and snail visceral mass and adults were provided with algae and thawed blood worms. Larvae found snails and visceral mass hidden in the filter paper (only “smell” could be used); however, visceral mass was found 22–27 minutes sooner than snails, 40–53 minutes. Time to find the visceral mass that was exposed (all senses could be used) or hidden (only “smell” could be used) showed similar values, 5.4–8.0 or 7.6–8.5 minutes, respectively. Adults found algae exposed on the filter paper in 54 ± 73 minutes (mean ± standard deviation), whereas no adults found the algae hidden in the filter paper. In contrast, all adults found the thawed blood worms in the exposed (10.3 ± 13 minutes) and hidden conditions (11.0 ± 12.7 minutes). Adults did not show feeding behaviour towards the algae or thawed blood worms in the transparent microtube (only “sight” could be used). These suggest that larvae use smell, whereas adults use smell and touch and/or taste to detect their food.

Type
Research Paper
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 153 , Issue 6 , December 2021 , pp. 651 - 665
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of Canada

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Footnotes

Subject editor: Rob Johns

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