Trophic Ecology of Click Beetle Larva (Coleoptera, Elateridae)
The data on trophic ecology of click-beetles’ larvae are summarized; food regimes in 100 species of the family are analyzed. The traditional classification of wireworms and their food requirements based on laboratory experiments are revised in the light of the latest data obtained using instrumental methods in soil zoology. Most species are predators, about a third are omnivorous. A wide polyphagia and/or variable trophic niches were characteristic for some species of omnivorous larvae. Apparently, the same is characteristic of all omnivorous wireworms. The works on the searching behavior of wireworms are analyzed; a detailed model for the orientation of herbivorous wireworms is developed. Based on real food regimes of wireworms, this model is incomplete, since the wireworms considered as herbivorous are in fact inclined to predation and saprophagy in nature, which affect their search behavior. Possible adaptation mechanisms that ensure the ecological plasticity of wireworms are also discussed.