Patch selection may be an important foraging decision for sit-and-wait predators. The quality of foraging patches selected by an individual may affect survival, growth rate, and fecundity. I investigated if Chinese praying mantis nymphs (Tenodera sinensis Saussure) use both visual and chemical cues of prey and prey habitat during patch selection. For prey cues, mantises spent more time oriented towards visual cues (crickets) and more time located on substrates with chemical cues (cricket excreta) relative to controls. The relatively weak preference for prey cues may have been due to the short exposure of mantises to crickets as a food item (1 week). Mantises also spent more time oriented towards and located on the side of the arena closest to visual cues of prey habitat (painted flowers) than the control side. Strong preference for visual cues of prey habitat may be due to their potential to predict future prey abundance, as opposed to prey cues that indicate past or present prey abundance. Neither orientation nor location was affected by chemical cues of prey habitat (pollen), which was a novel cue for the mantises. Lack of response to this novel cue suggests that the preference for cricket excreta was not an experimental artifact. Use of visual and chemical cues of prey and visual cues of prey habitat in the field may increase the foraging success of mantis nymphs. Further studies are needed to investigate how combinations of cues from single or multiple sensory modalities affect patch choice.
Species 1: Mantodea Mantidae Tenodera sinensis (Chinese Praying Mantis)
Keywords: patch selection
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