Abstract:
Mosquitoes are nuisance and play a major role as vectors of many
pathogens. Larvae are mostly filter feeders but the larvae of genus Lutzia is
known as predators of mosquito larvae for a long time. The maximum prey
consumption is the basic elements in the evaluation of a predator as a
possible biological control agent. To obtain some understanding of the
predatory potential of Lutzia this quantitative study was undertaken around
the Eastern University premises from February 2009 to March 2010. Field
collected egg rafts of Lutzia were reared in the laboratory conditions (Room
temperature 290C and Relative humidity 75%) and the freshly emerged
larvae were separated individually by using plastic dropper into the larval
rearing cups filled with filtered tap water which covered by mosquito net to
prevent other ovipositions and other predatory interactions. In this
experiment, fifteen replicates of larval rearing cups were arranged to four
repeated trials. Thirty 1st instar larvae of Culex were provided as a prey and
the consumed prey was counted every twenty four hours intervals and the
consumed prey larvae were replaced each time until all the predatory larvae
pupated. The prey larvae were maintained approximately same size as the
predator. There is a statistical significance (p=0.0001) between hours of
interval and consumption. In this experiment one predator larvae of Lutzia
consumed average of 76.25% of same size of the prey Culex larvae in its larval
life.
