The influences of diet on the life histories of aquatic insects

Benthic species are partitioned into functional feeding groups based on food-acquiringmechanisms. Effects of food quality on voltinism, growth rate, and size at maturity are demon-strated for representatives of gougers and shredders, collectors, and scrapers. Food quality forpredators is uniformly high, but food quantity (prey density) obviously influences their lifehistories. A food switch from herbivory to predation, or some ingestion of animal tissues, inthe later stages is a feature of the life cycle of many aquatic insects. Temperature interacts withboth food quality and quantity in effects on growth as well as having a direct effect on controlof metabolism. Thus further elaboration of the role of food in life history phenomena willrequire controlled field or laboratory studies to partition the effects of temperature and food.
Key words: aquatic insects, feeding strategies, functional groups, life histories