Department of Zoology, Stella Maris College, Chennai - 600 086, (India).
Studies on survival rate of the belostomatld bug, Diplonychus rusticus Fabr. through Immature stages varying in relation to their feeding efficiency with different prey types revealed that the predation rates were not constant. Predation was higher in males than in females and also the predatory rate of the instars and adults was found to be high for both prey types. Instars and female predators showed a preference for Chironomus larvae whereas, male predators preferred Culex quinquefascistus larvae. The survival rate for males was higher on C. quinquefascistus.
