Studies On Fighting And Feeding Behavior Of Larva And Reproductive Behavior Of Adult Neoeuromus Ignobilis

The larvae of Acanthacorydalis and big-sized Neoneuromus(Megaloptera:Corydalidae)are collectively referred to as Hellgrammites,which are rare dual-use insects for medicine and food,and are effective in treating nocturnal urination in children and frequent urination in the elderly.In recent years,environmental destruction and indiscriminate fishing have caused the number of Hellgrammites in the wild to plummet,so the artificial breeding of Hellgrammites can’t be delayed.In the process of artificial breeding,the larvae of the Hellgrammites often fight and cause wound infections,thereby leading to death.The study of the feeding behavior of the larvae is of great significance for efficient breeding and the development of artificial bait.In this paper,Neoneuromus ignobilis Navás(1932),the main species of Hellgrammites,was selected as the research object,and the behavioral theory was used as a guide to study the fighting and feeding behaviors of larvae and the breeding behavior of adults to lay a theoretical foundation for its artificial breeding.The main results and conclusions of the study revealed that:(1)larval N.ignobilis would often fight after meeting each other,and there were two modes: frontal fighting and backward stealing.The larvae were found to have wounds on the surface of the larvae,which led to the infection of Beauveria bassiana.The conidia were mostly scattered near the conjunctivae,dorsal folds,dorsal tubular protrusions,depressions of the integument and their setal alveolus;the conidia could enter directly through the germ tube or after producing the tenaculum.If the insects with wounds were not infected with the fungus,the wounds were basically healed after 120 h;the symptoms that appeared after receiving the fungus were basically the same as those of normal insects after infection,but the peak of death number was advanced by about 12 h.(2)The larvae of Tanypus punctipennis,which are preferred by larval N.ignobilis,were the main food.This study found that the feeding amount of larval N.ignobilis increased with the temperature increases;the size of the bottom diameter of the container was positively correlated with the time of finding food by larval N.ignobilis;different colors of LED lights and if there are obstacles had no significant effect on the time of completing the feeding process of larval N.ignobilis,but had significant effects on the time of finding and starting to feed.The forefoot played a very important role in feeding,its role was mainly to assist in hunting,assist in fixing food,cleaning excess food and cleaning mouthparts;the abdominal hairs on the ventral surface of the 9th-10 th segment were composed of some dense bristles,and the 10 th segment had two pairs of curved claws on both sides,all these features were helpful for the larval N.ignobilis to fix and support their bodies well when feeding,thus assisting and promoting feeding.(3)N.ignobilis was able to eclosion at any time,but most of the time it occurs in the dark cycle,the main time of eclosion was from 20:00 to 24:00,and the whole eclosion process usually lasted about 15 min.Adults preferred to feed on foods with more water and sugar.The courtship behavior of adults was characterized by "chasing",with males chasing males the most and taking the longest time,followed by males chasing females,while females chasing males was relatively rare and females chasing females did not occur.Adults fought for the right to mate during courtship,but most of these fights occurred between males.The main adult mating position was the "scorpion" position,but it could be varied.The eggs were laid in a semi-elliptical,snail-shaped,ovoid,or oblong egg mass.After laying,the female continued to secrete a white fluid from her gonopore,which continued to cover the entire surface of the egg mass by swinging her abdomen.This white secretion became hard when air dried and protected the egg mass from external damage and maintained the moisture content of the egg mass.The surface of the spawning secretion consisted of rod-like structures,where most of the surface rods were horizontally oriented,while the ventral surface was vertically oriented.This thesis is the first detailed study on the fighting and feeding behavior of the larval N.ignobilis,especially on the process and mechanism of the series of diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria infecting the larvae of Megaloptera order after fighting;the results of these studies had laid the theoretical foundation for the efficient artificial breeding of the larval N.ignobilis.This thesis is also the first to record a series of behaviors related to the breeding of adult N.ignobilis,which enriches the basic information of Megaloptera,especially the behavioral information,and helps to break through several problems in the key stages of the artificial breeding of N.ignobilis.