Microhabitat preferences of spiders (Araneae) and carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in maize fields
Alderweireldt, M.; Desender, K.
Mededelingen van de Faculteit Landbouwwetenschappen - Rijksuniversiteit Gent 55(2B): 501-510
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0368-9697
Accession: 002160542
Data are presented on 19 species of spiders and 24 carabids in 2 maize fields in Belgium in 1987, together with an analysis of microsite or site preferences by day and night for some of these predators. Pterostichus melanarius and Oedothorax apicatus were active mainly at night, and Erigone atra, E. dentipalpis, E. vagans and Meioneta rurestris by day. Agonum muelleri, Bembidion quadrimaculatum, O. apicatus and E. vagans showed a preference for a field with low maize, while Bathyphantes gracilis, Diplostyla concolor and Lepthyphantes tenuis preferred high, dense maize. B. quadrimaculatus, E. dentipalpis and E. vagans showed a highly significant preference for the microsite between maize stalks. B. gracilis preferred the microsite between the rows of maize plants in low maize, but between the maize stalks in the dense maize field. This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Crop Protection in May 1990 in Ghent, Belgium.