Agricultural and Biological Research

Predation efficiency of Eucanthecona furcellata on Fall Armyworm

Mariecel A. Fuentes*

It is the objective of this research to determine the predation efficiency of Eucanthecona furcellata on Fall Armyworm. It was arranged in a Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three treatments replicated seven times with ten FAW at different instars in separate containers. A two-way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between predator sexes and the instar preference of prey consumed by Eucanthecona furcellata. Means were separated by Tukey’s honestly significant differences test us probability level of 0.05. The laboratory conditions were 24-29 degrees Celsius with relative humidity of 55-85%. The predation efficiency of the male Eucanthecona furcellata decreased as the FAW larvae grew bigger from the third to sixth instar. Similarly, the predation efficiency of the female Eucanthecona furcellata decreased as the FAW larvae increased its sizes as they emerged from third to sixth instar. The combined male and female Eucanthecona furcellata yielded the most number of eaten FAW. There is a significant difference in the predation efficiency between the male Eucanthecona furcellata and the combined male and female Eucanthecona furcellata. Likewise, a significant difference in the predation efficiency existed between the female Eucanthecona furcellata and the combined male and female Eucanthecona furcellata.