Interspecific differences in movement and hunting success in damselfly larvae (Zygoptera: Insecta): responses to prey availability and predation threat

SUMMARY. 1. Freshwater invertebrate predators can alter their hunting behaviour in response to prey availability and threat from their own enemies. Movement patterns and hunting success of the larvae of two species of damselfly (Zygoptera: Insecta), Enallagma cyathigerum (L.) and L. sponsa (Hansemann), were monitored in four combinations of prey availability and enemy threat. Aeshna juncea (L.) (Anisoptera: Insecta) larvae acted as predator and Daphnia magna Straus (Cladocera: Crustacea) as prey in the combinations: no predator/no prey; one Aeshna present/no prey; no predator/thirty Daphnia present; one Aeshna present/ thirty Daphnia present. 2. E. cyathigerum showed significantly reduced movement in the +Aeshna/no prey treatment but hunting success was not significantly affected. No other treatment effects were noted. L. sponsa movement patterns differed significantly across all four treatments and hunting success was significantly reduced in the presence of Aeshna . Interspecifically, movement patterns of the two species differed markedly in all four treatments. L. sponsa larvae were much more active, and caught many more prey. Despite their activity L. sponsa larvae did not appear markedly more vulnerable than the immobile E. cyathigerum . 3. The interspecific differences between the two damselflies reflect predictions based on larval life‐history. Activity patterns and ability to capture adequate prey under varying levels of predation may be important in the ecology of damselfly species.