ARTHROPOD COMMUNITY RESPONSES TO MANIPULATION OF A BITROPHIC PREDATOR GUILD

In an old-field community, mantid Tenodera sinensis depressed total numbers (10-15%) and biomass (50%) in the arthropod community over the course of 10 d, an effect confined to the largest size categories in the community. Wolf spiders Lycosa rabida had no measurable effect at this level of resolution. Mantids depressed abundance of acridids in both mantid and mantid/lycosid enclosures; again lycosids had no impact. Lycosids alone enhanced abundance of gryllids, but not in the presence of mantids. Both mantids and lycosids depressed numbers of small spiders (also members of this guild), but this effect was not additive. -from Authors