SEARCHING BEHAVIOR OF 
HIPPODA MIA CONVERGENS LARVAE 
(COCCINELLIDAE: COLEOPTERA)* 
By Kenneth W. Hunter, Jr. 
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Introduction 
Survival and development of predaceous Coccinellidae depend in 
large part on their ability to find food (Hodek, 1973). Coccinellid 
larvae exhibit different searching patterns before and after finding 
prey; the path of a larva just after consuming a prey item is generally 
more tortuous than before the encounter (Banks, 1954; Banks, 1957; 
Kaddow 1959). When the prey are gregarious, this type of altered 
searching behavior is thought to increase the chance of finding 
additional prey (Banks, 1957). In the present study I describe the 
searching behavior of larvae of the convergent lady beetle, Hippo- 
damia convergens (Guerin), before and after feeding on the spotted 
alfalfa aphid, Therioaphis maculata (Buckton). 
Materials and Methods 
Adult H. convergens were collected from a field of alfalfa located 
at the Arizona State University Experimental Farm, Tempe, AZ. 
Copulating pairs were isolated for 48 hrs, then the females were 
removed and placed in six-dram plastic vials lined with paper 
toweling. The toweling was moistened periodically. Isolated females 
were supplied daily with thirty fourth-instar or adult T. maculata 
(Nielson and Currie, 1960) collected from the alfalfa field by sweep 
netting. The vials were incubated at 32° C for 4 or 5 days during 
which time the fertilized females deposited clusters of eggs on the 
toweling; then the female beetles were removed and the brood 
chambers incubated for another two days. After hatching, the first 
instar larvae remain clustered around the egg shell, but because of 
cannibalism it was necessary to immediately separate the newly 
hatched larvae. Individual larvae were transferred to new vials, by 
* Manuscript received by the editor October 17, 1978. 
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