Strategies of aphidophagous predators: lessons for modelling insect predator–prey dynamics

Abstract

Both theoretical and empirical evidence indicate that in systems where insect predators have longer developmental times than their prey the predators have little impact on the abundance of their prey. In assessing the ‘effectiveness’ of a predator for biological control one should take into account that selection maximizes predator fitness, not its effctiveness as a biocontrol agent. Therefore, predators that have a long developmental time relative to their prey are unlikely to be the best biocontrol agents. If these results can be generalized to other predator–prey systems, then it is clear that an understanding of predator–prey dynamics can only be achieved by studying predators.