Impact of seed imbibition on seed preferences by carabid beetles

Carabid beetles serve as significant controllers of weed seed species, distinguished for their important role in suppressing seed bank mortality and influencing population dynamics across various weed species. Recently, seed predation has gained recognition as a natural method of weed control in agricultural ecosystems. Extensive studies on ground beetle seed predation have emphasized their preferences for specific seed species. Nevertheless, the mechanistic side of choice, discrimination, and selection is a complex phenomenon that is influenced by various factors and thus, it is necessary to continue exploring the feeding ecology of granivorous beetles to understand better the possible variables that can impact their selection decisions. Seed chemical cues and physical properties can mean a criterion for seed choice influencing whether ground beetles are likely to feed on them. Imbibition on seeds has not been fully understood, it is a characteristic that can trigger chemical compound releasement and the increase in its size and it is the biological phenomenon on which this investigation is focused, showing the evaluation of seed consumption among two carabid species, Pterostichus melanarius, and Poecilus corvus, by exposing them to four different duration imbibition (0, 6, 24, and 96 hours) of seeds of Bassia scoparia (Kochia) and Brassica napus (Canola – Volunteer seed) under laboratory choice tests.

These experiments provide valuable information for a better understanding of carabid seed choices, by unraveling the complex nature of carabid feeding behavior.