Effects of alternative food on cannibalism and herbivore suppression by carabid larvae

Abstract

1. Predator and alternative food density are important factors influencing herbivore suppression by generalist predators. Herbivore suppression can be reduced if predators forage preferentially on alternative foods. Cannibalism can increase at high predator densities, further reducing herbivore suppression. However, complex interactions are possible, as alternative food can increase predator abundance and survival restoring top‐down effects on herbivores.2. In two species of carabid larvae (Poecilus chalcites and Anisodactylus ovularis), we studied how alternative foods (fly pupae and grass seeds) and predator density affect predation of black cutworm larvae and how alternative foods affect cannibalism among carabid larvae.3. Adding alternative food to microcosms generally reduced total predation of cutworms. However, the strength of this effect was dependent on carabid species, larval density, and food type.4. Increasing larval density from one to three per microcosm reduced per‐capita predation by both species irrespective of alternative food treatment.5. Alternative food reduced cannibalism in both carabid species and increased survival of carabid larvae in field plots, such that twice as many were captured in plots subsidised with pupae than plots with no alternative food.6. These results provide new insight into the complex interactions that influence predator survival and herbivore suppression in resource diverse habitats by demonstrating the primacy of intraguild interactions among carabid larvae.