Abstract
Abstract Food preferences and choices are common among animals, including insects. Studies on food preferences have been done on coccinellids using eggs and aphids as diet, but information on the food choices of the aphidophagous ladybird, Propylea dissecta (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), under laboratory conditions, is scarce. This study examined the effect of physical activity (walking) on food choice. We reared P. dissecta larvae on aphids, Aphis craccivora (Hemiptera: Aphididae), until the fourth-instar stage, and then allowed the fourth-instar larvae to walk on a glass rod for different time intervals to illustrate the energetic costs of foraging. After walking, larvae were provided simultaneous food choices of equidistantly placed food, i.e., A. craccivora, conspecific eggs, and heterospecific eggs. As the walking time duration gradually increased, the level of larval activity increased, resulting in poorer food choices.
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