Food and feeding of aquatic larvae of the midge chaoborus flavicans (meigen) (diptera : chaoboridae) in the laboratory

Laboratory observations on the feeding of fourth instar larvae of Chaoborus flavicans (Meigen) show that features relating to the prey, such as swimming behaviour, size and shape, play a major role in determining the kind of food eaten by the predator.In tests with two interacting limnetic cyclopoid copepods, Cyclops abyssorum out-competed Mesocyclops leuckarti when Chaoborus was absent but did not do so when Chaoborus was present.