The rearing of Thanasimus formicarius (L.) (coleoptera,cleridae) in the laboratory, its feeding preference andpredation effect

In this study, it was aimed to determine the feeding behaviour, predation, preference and created loss amount of predator beetle Thanasimus formicarius (L.) (Coleoptera, Cleridae) on different biological periods of Ips sexdentatus (Boerner) and Dentroctonus micans (Kugelann) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) , which are among the bar beetle causing great damage on conifer trees, in the laboratory. Adult T. formicarius and I. sexdentatus, obtained regularly from the pheromone traps placed biotechnical control, and larva of T. formicarius and I. sexdentatus, gathered from the bottom of barks of trees damaged by the species and larva of D. micans, provided from the forests of Artvin, were used as the materials of the study. Totally 1325 experiments, in which weight calculations were executed before and after the nourishment within 24-hour periods, were administrated on 50 adults T. formicarius, selected for this reason and put into the breeding containers, and 20 larvae of T. formicarius by using the different biological periods of the species of I. sexdentatus and D. micans as prey. It was determined that while adult T. formicarius caused an average loss of 0.0188 gr at the end of 24-hours without considering different biological period and prey groups used in different amounts, this was 0,0149 gr for the larva of T. formicarius. When considering the feeding preference, the results showed that adults and larva of T. formicarius firstly preferred larva if there was larva at the food as prey. In addition, it was revealed that although adult T. formicarius did not kill all of the preys, with which sharing the same environment, depending on the increase in their number, it performed a predation causing the decrease of population of its prey, and it was concluded that adult I. sexdentatus predation reduced depending on the increase in the larva number of D. micans.