Abstract：
Many insects rely heavily on visual cues in foraging and other life activities. Mantids are insect predators that usually ambush prey. The sophisticated visual system of mantids allows them to spot, track, and strike at prey with high accuracy. Mantids are categorized as diurnal animals in most cases, while our field observations suggested that they were active in foraging both day and night. Therefore, we hypothesize that predation in dim light is possible for mantids, while mantids are unable to capture prey in complete darkness. In this study, we experimentally examined whether different light conditions could affect the predation success and efficiency of mantid nymphs and adults, Hierodula chinensis Werner (Mantodea: Mantidae), through behavioral observations. Individual mantids were placed in individual chambers in complete darkness, simulated moonlight (0.1 lux), or simulated dusk (50 lux) conditions and were allowed to forage for prey items for 10 min. Our observations showed no evidence that H. chinensis could capture any prey in complete deprivation of light. The proportion of nymphs with successful predation in simulated moonlight was 50% higher than that in complete darkness and 45.83% lower than that in simulated dusk. The proportion of adults with successful predation in simulated moonlight was 42.11% higher than that in complete darkness and 57.89% lower than that in simulated dusk. Overall, the results provide new insights into the behavioral ecology of diurnal predators at night, with potential association with moonlight, starlight, and light pollution.
摘要：
许多昆虫在觅食和其他生命活动中严重依赖视觉线索。Mantids是通常伏击猎物的昆虫捕食者。复杂的视觉系统使它们能够发现，轨道,以高精度攻击猎物。在大多数情况下，Mantids被归类为昼夜动物，而我们的野外观察表明，它们白天和黑夜都活跃于觅食。因此,我们假设在昏暗的光线下捕食是可能的，而在完全黑暗的情况下，牡蛎无法捕获猎物。在这项研究中,我们通过实验研究了不同的光照条件是否会影响甘露虫和成虫的捕食成功和效率，中华耳鸣（曼陀罗：曼蒂科），通过行为观察。个别的牡丹被放置在完全黑暗的单独的房间里，模拟月光（0.1勒克斯），或模拟黄昏（50勒克斯）条件，并允许其觅食10分钟。我们的观察结果表明，没有证据表明，在完全缺乏光照的情况下，中国人可以捕获任何猎物。模拟月光下捕食成功的若虫比例比完全黑暗中的比例高50％，比模拟黄昏中的比例低45.83％。模拟月光下成功捕食的成年人比例比完全黑暗中的成年人比例高42.11％，比模拟黄昏中的成年人比例低57.89％。总的来说,这些结果为夜间捕食者的行为生态学提供了新的见解，与月光有潜在的联系，星光,和光污染。
