Searching Behavior of Hippodamia Convergens Larvae (Coccinellidae: Coleoptera)

Survival and development of predaceous Coccinellidae depend in large part on their ability to find food (Hodek, 1973). Coccinellid larvae exhibit different searching patterns before and after finding prey; the path of a larva just after consuming a prey item is generally more tortuous than before the encounter (Banks, 1954; Banks, 1957; Kaddow 1959). When the prey are gregarious, this type of altered searching behavior is thought to increase the chance of finding additional prey (Banks, 1957). In the present study I describe the searching behavior of larvae of the convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens (Guerin), before and after feeding on the spotted alfalfa aphid, Therioaphis maculata (Buckton).