Meeting Abstract

32.2  Wednesday, Jan. 5  Modulation in the Strike Kinematics of the Ant-lion Larvae, Myrmeleon crudelis LAMBERT, E.P.*; MOTTA, P.J.; Univ. of South Florida; Univ. of South Florida eplamber@mail.usf.edu

Ant-lions are pit-building larvae (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae), which possess relatively large mandibles used for catching and consuming prey. Few studies involving terrestrial arthropod larvae have investigated feeding kinematics and there have been no studies which have shown modulation of strike kinematics. We examined feeding kinematics of the ant-lion larvae, Myrmeleon crudelis to investigate whether they modulate their strike behavior based on prey location relative to the mandible. Data collected from five M. crudelis, captured on high-speed video, demonstrate modulation of the angular velocity of the mandibles based on prey location. Myrmeleon crudelis attempted to simultaneously contact prey with both mandibles by decreasing mean angular velocity of near mandible (81.0 rad s^-1) compared to far mandible (91.4 rad s^-1) and by increasing the time to strike onset of the near mandible (3.79 ms) compared to the far mandible (.340 ms). Furthermore, kinematic results showed a significant difference for mean angular velocity, mean angular acceleration, delay, and time to prey contact between the two mandibles. These data suggest that there may be a trade off between the ability to modulate and ultra fast strike velocity. The ability to modulate the capture behavior may confer advantages in dietary breadth and capture success rates to these predatory larvae.