Predation by Ground Beetles on Weed Seeds Exhumed From Soil Bank

摘要

Ground beetles (Carabidae: Coleoptera) are predators of the seed of herbaceous plants scattered on the ground, but prefer that of certain species. Seed eating carabids aggregate in weedy agricultural fields and their role in decreasing the seed outputof weeds on farmland is generally recognized. The choice differs between carabid tribes and at the species level is determined by the relative size of the seed to that of the carabid and other still incompletely understood qualities of the seed. However, foraging beetles encounter both freshly dispersed seed and seed exhumed from the soil bank. In contrast to preferences for particular species of seed the preferences for freshly dispersed vs. soil bank stored seed were never considered nor experimentally investigated.Here we address the effect of burial on seed acceptability in two generalist granivorous carabid species abundant in Central Europe, Harpalus affinis and Pseudoophonus ruflpes.