Do You know insect that eats prey with no leftovers? - (Jan/17/2014 )

Hi All,

for my recent project I need to find a kind of insect that feed rather quick (few minutes from start to the end), and consumes prey with no leftovers (like snake). Do any of You know such insect? Any suggestiions are welcome.

All Best,

Allies 

lady beetles ...

Weird question.

It depends largely on the prey type..insect predators that feed on soft prey such as ladybeetles eat them up completely (though the feeding habits are as in all other insects not really good and often often parts and leftovers fall down )

But all more sturdy and hard food is rarely consumed completely independent from predator or prey species....such prey is often prepared by biting off wings and legs, sometimes even the head.

Anyway some ground beetles, praying mantis I guess also eat up their prey often more or less completely, with the above limitations.

ok thank You for the lady beetles. The idea of question is that in my group we work on ektotherms. We try to measure metabolism after food consumption. The problem we face is when the animal eat and how much does it consumed. We tried autumn beetles (many species) and all of them don't want to eat (some of them can be alive and vital for 4 weeks and more) or eat very messy. The same problem is with praing mantis.  We cannot measure precise enough how much did it eat.

Thank You very much. We will try lady beetles as You suggest.   

All Best

Allies

It will not be easy to do.

If possible: it would be even better to work with the larva of the lady beetle. They are even more vicious than the lady beetle itself.... they will even try to bite your fingers .... they will pretty much eat everything.

wow thanks pito. We will explore lady beetle behaviour.

All Best

Allies