TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ouyang, Xu
A1  - Gao, Jiancao
A1  - Chen, Bojian
A1  - Wang, Zaizhao
A1  - Ji, Hong
A1  - Plath, Martin
T1  - Characterizing a novel predator–prey relationship between native Diplonychus esakii (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae) and invasive Gambusia affinis (Teleostei: Poeciliidae) in central China
T2  - International aquatic research
N2  - A considerable body of the literature considers the potential impact of exotic predators on native prey organisms, while comparatively, few studies have asked whether and how native predators include novel prey types into their diet spectrum. Here, we asked whether the native aquatic heteropteran Diplonychus esakii preys on the highly invasive western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), which has been introduced to southern China and threatens native fish species through competition and predation on their fry. We conducted 48-h prey choice experiments under semi-natural conditions. In a ‘no-choice’ experiment (one predator and one potential prey; n = 200), we found the heteropterans to prey more on large-bodied fish, a pattern that was also described for other belostomatids, while prey sex had no effect on capture rates. Moreover, large-bodied heteropterans caught more fish than small-bodied individuals. However, overall capture rates in our study were low (11.5–30%) compared to studies on other belostomatids, which explains why subsequent binary prey choice experiments using one predator and two prey—either large and small females or male and female (with smaller sample sizes of n = 20 and 30, respectively)—did not confirm the results of our first experiment. Our study exemplifies how a pattern of body size-dependent predation can arise in a novel (not coevolved) predator–prey interaction. We tentatively argue that the observed pattern could be driven by intrinsic features of the predator, namely, altered prey preferences with increasing age coupled with a general preference for large-bodied prey, or changing nutritional needs at different developmental stages.
KW  - Aquatic invasion
KW  - Mosquitofish
KW  - Neozoan
KW  - Predator–prey interaction
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48870
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-488708
SN  - 2008-6970
SN  - 2008-4935
N1  - Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
VL  - 9
IS  - 2
SP  - 141
EP  - 151
PB  - Springer Open
CY  - Berlin ; Heidelberg [u. a.]
ER  -