From 1940 up to the time of writing, experiments have been carried out in the savanna country in the north of the Gold Coast on the trapping of Glossina palpalis and G. tachinoides, which are the most important vectors of sleeping sickness in West Africa.

The habitat of these tsetse is described, with special reference to their feeding grounds, since those are the places where, trapping can be most effective and control of the flies is most desirable.

A new type of trap, the Animal trap, was designed to meet the feeding habits of the two species of tsetse whose main hosts in the country where sleeping sickness is prevalent are man and domestic animals.

The construction and maintenance of the Animal trap are described, the essential feature of which is a barrel-shaped body standing out well under good lighting and easily visible from all angles.

Traps with a standardised 2-feet-long body raised 1 foot from the ground combined optimum catching with convenience in construction and portability.

Light brown or khaki covering was slightly better than black, and rough material was decidedly better than smooth. Under poor lighting conditions these differences were less marked.

Comparisons over long periods showed that the Animal trap caught over 20 times as many flies as the Harris trap which was not at all suitable for G. palpalis; about 10 times as many flies as Swynnerton's A.S.B. trap; and about seven times as many flies as Chorley's Crinoline trap.

The correct siting of traps is of the greatest importance.

Traps catch well anywhere in fly-belt but are most effective in open feeding grounds such as ferries, fords, waterholes and animals' drinking places.

The regular presence of an abundance of hosts is the, most important single factor for good siting, and the nearer the traps can be placed to natural hosts the more effective they will prove.

Traps should be placed if possible with their axes at right angles to the regular lines of movement of the flies.

Good visibility of the trap from as wide an angle as possible is of great importance. Traps about five yards from the edge of the fly-belt catch twice as well as traps right at the margin of the bushes and considerably better than traps 40-50 yards out.

Good lighting, especially from overhead, is an advantage but by no means essential.

Good sites remain consistently good as long as the environment is unchanged, and bad sites remain bad.

There is a tendency for the numbers of flies caught to fall by as much as 70 per cent, during the first few weeks when traps are placed in undisturbed fly-belt. This is the effect of skimming off a part of the fly population in the immediate vicinity of the traps and does not represent a real reduction in population.

Comparison of tsetse catches by groups of five traps operating continuously, and by flyboys at the rate of 20 flyboy-days a month from parallel series of observations, gave the following facts for which explanations are offered.

Traps relative to flyboys are more efficient in taking G. tachinoides and less efficient in the cases of G. palpalis and G. morsitans. Flyboys, however, catch a higher proportion of female G. tachinoides but a lower proportion of females of the other two species.

It is considered that Animal traps represent the regular hosts of G. tachinoides and so attract non-feeding males as well as hungry flies of both sexes, whereas in the cases of G. palpalis and G. morsitans the traps represent something outside the range of their preferred hosts arid so attract only hungry flies bent on obtaining a meal.

Traps appear to have a greater efficiency relative to flyboys in groves and clearings where the numbers of flies are small, than in sites in or near heavy and extensive fly-belt with high fly populations. This is possibly the result of competition which would be most evident in small tsetse populations and which would act in favour of the continuously present traps.

There is a striking difference in the annual rhythms of catches by flyboys and by traps; the former showing a double-peaked curve with maxima at the beginning and in the middle of the wet season, the latter with a single peak towards the end of the dry season and a minimum during the rains.

The efficiency of traps relative to flyboys is greatest in January and least in September. In an estimate based on all the available data and comparing 150 trap-days with 20 flyboy-days monthly, the traps at their best were 10 times as good as the flyboys, and at their other extreme were as low as one-fourth of the flyboys' catches.

It is considered that this maximum efficiency in the dry season is not due to the flies' attraction to shade but that it is a complex result of the circumstances which bring about optimum conditions for trapping in the dry season, when the weather frequently puts flyboys at a disadvantage, and the most adverse conditions for trapping in the wet season when they enjoy certain advantages of mobility.

The seasonal rhythm of trap catches has demonstrated the presence of a considerably greater fly population in the height of the dry season than is suggested by the magnitude of boys' catches.

Three possibilities of trapping in the control of sleeping sickness are examined : (1) for extermination of the tsetse; (2) for reduction of the fly population; (3) for destruction of feeding flies in contact with people.

Regarding the first possibility it had been found that continuous catching by teams of four flyboys could eliminate G. palpalis and G. tachinoides from small groves after 8–12 weeks' continuous catching but that, since none of these groves was completely isolated, repopulation took place by immigration, especially in the wet season. Small numbers of traps, 5–7 to the acre, made no apparent difference to limited tsetse populations but concentrations of traps up to 20 to the acre brought about considerable reductions and checked the effects of immigration, but with no approach to extermination of the flies.

Eradication of the tsetse by traps is impossible but reduction of fly populations, if it can be effected over the main area of an epidemic, should, in theory, result in a partial control of trypanosomiasis.

Small groups of traps well sited in feeding grounds bring about considerable reductions in the numbers of active, hungry flies in contact with their hosts although hardly affecting the main fly community. This, in theory, will have a definite protective value to the community, enhanced by the fact that traps show increased catching powers when in close proximity to man and animals and that there is a tendency for people and tsetse to concentrate around waterholes (thus coming into the most intimate contact), during the dry season, the very time when traps are working at maximum efficiency.

It is in this protective role that traps seem to show their greatest possibilities for use in the control of sleeping sickness. The measure is applicable anywhere. It needs only small numbers of traps at each place where infection is being transmitted so that a reasonably big area could be covered economically. It might be a useful adjunct to clearings which fail to exclude the tsetse sufficiently. Traps so used might prove a valuable supplementary control-medium in places, such as the forest, where clearing is unlikely to be easy or cheap. Finally, experiment has shown that the retention of toxicity to Glossina of DDT-impregnated hessian exposed to the weather is sufficient to justify the application of DDT to the material covering the traps in order to increase their killing power.

The seasonal occurrence and spatial distribution of the crambine stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) were investigated in maize, Zea mays, and sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, fields at the Kenya coast. During the vegetative growth stage, small-sized larvae were typically found behind leaf sheaths and in whorls in maize and sorghum. In reproductive and senescent maize, small-sized larvae were also found feeding in ears. Later immature life stages were located predominantly in stems in sorghum, and in the stems and ears in maize. Density and variance estimates of small, medium-, and large-sized larvae and pupae in maize and sorghum were fitted to Taylor's power law which provided significant regressions in all cases. The between-plant distribution was aggregated in all life stages. In maize, the distribution remained aggregated through the larval and pupal life stages, but in sorghum the distribution became progressively less aggregated as insects aged. The relationship of C. partellus density to the proportion of plants infested also suggested aggregation. Optimal sample sizes were determined for both binomial and enumerative sampling plans at two levels of precision, and a discussion is included on the relationship of optimal sample sizes to economic injury levels. Additionally, a presence/absence sequential sampling plan is proposed.

A preliminary investigation to find an easily assayable biochemical character, varying reproducibly with age which would give a more accurate assessment of insect age than the best methods then available, had revealed the fluorescent eye pigments, the pteridines, as a promising candidate. Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) was chosen as a model. Double-blind laboratory experiments in which the age post-eclosion of females was predicted from a standard laboratory curve of pteridine accumulation with age post-eclosion, showed the method to be accurate on average to ±1·49 days. Further laboratory experiments defined the relationships between temperature and pteridine accumulation in males and females of S. calcitrans such that the method could be modified for field use. Field observations in the UK indicated that the temperature of adults in the wild is determined by ambient temperature, the number of sunlight hours and the flies' own physiological and/or behavioural capabilities. From this information, equations for the accumulation of pteridines with temperature and age post-eclosion in males and females of S. calcitrans were constructed. To test the accuracy of these equations, approximately 19 600 marked flies of known age were released in a farmyard; 126 females were recaptured over 22 days and 90 males over 19 days. The average errors of predicted age using the pteridine accumulation method were ±190 days for females and ±137 days for males over the life-span of the recaptured insects.

During investigations into shoot-fly damage to guinea corn (Sorghum bicolor), millet (Pennisetum typhoides) and maize (Zea mays) in rain-grown plots at Samaru during 1966, it became obvious that attack was not attributable to a single species (Atherigona varia var. soccata Rondani (=A. indica infuscata van Emden)), as was previously believed. This species is undoubtedly the principal pest of guinea corn seedlings and young plants in northern Nigeria (Map 1), but there are also many other species involved. During the following four years field trials were undertaken to establish the relative importance of the species within the area and to learn something of their biology.

Flight initiation of adults of Triatoma infestans (Klug) was recorded in a laboratory apparatus. The proportion of individuals initiating flight depended on the nutritional status of the insects, and flight activity was greatest about 12–18 days after feeding. From measurements of the weight and length of the insects, it was possible to assign the probabilities of flight initiation and thus predict the proportion of an adult population likely to fly. The predictive model should be of use to field workers studying dispersion of T. infestans between infested houses.

Adults of Dacus spp. feed on plant surface bacteria. The responses of D. tryoni (Froggatt) and D. cacuminatus (Hering) to some components of bacterial odours and to cue-lure were tested in a field-cage olfactometer, in studies in south-eastern Queensland. One component of bacterial emission, 2-butanone, attracted D. tryoni (a species responding to cue-lure) but not D. cacuminatus (a species responding to methyl eugenol) and is suggested as the attractive portion of the cue-lure molecule. Sexually mature males and immature females of D. tryoni responded to 2-butanone, cue-lure and bacterial odours in field-cage tests. Females fed on sugar and water required protein hydrolysate to produce eggs, but males were fertile with or without protein. These different nutrient requirements, and the fact that males and females possess different crop colour and bacterial contents when feeding in the same host-plant, indicate that the sexes feed on different substrates. Consequently, the strong bacterial attractant cues in the host-tree may be a feeding attractant to females and a sex attractant to males. It is proposed that 2-butanone is an important rendezvous stimulant in nature, bringing the mature male flies into the feeding and oviposition sites (host-trees) of the developing females for mating encounters.

To study life cycle variability in Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus), the responses to short days (L:D 10:14) of 70 clones were tested at two temperatures (10°C and 15°C) in the laboratory. Three clones originating from spring populations on the primary host, bird cherry (Prunus padus), were holocyclic, producing gynoparae and then males in the second generation under experimental conditions. Of the other clones, all originating from Gramineae, 78.5% were anholocyclic and 21.5% androcyclic (male-producing) at 15°C, but at 10°C only 12.7% were anholocyclic, 82.6% were androcyclic, and 4.7% showed an ‘intermediate’ response (i.e., some of the alate females produced both sexual and parthe-nogenetic offspring). There was considerable interclonal and inter-individual variation in the numbers of males produced by androcyclic clones. These results are discussed in relation to field studies on R. padi in Britanny, which indicate that 1. primary hosts are rather rare, but nevertheless commonly develop spring infestations; 2. anholocyclic genotypes are regularly decimated every few years by severe winters. It appears that the preponderance of androcyclic clones is important for the maintenance of life cycle variability.

Nightly light-trap catches of insects, covering periods of 2–5 years, from two sites in Africa within 10° of the equator are examined in relation to the regular changes in night illumination of the lunar cycle. For several species average log catches at different phases of the moon are almost linearly related to (log) night illumination, catches of some species, such as Isoptera and Bostrychidae, increasing and of others, such as Marasmia trapezalis(Gn.) (Pyralidae), Lampyridae and Dorylus spp. (Formicidae), decreasing with moonlight. Relative catches of M. trapezalis and Bostrychidae varied by a factor of 30:1 between no moon and full moon. Analysis of whole-night catches gives some evidence on the pattern of insect activity through the night, identifying Syntomis monothyris (Hmps.) (Ctenuchidae) and Stemorrhages sericea (Dru.) (Pyralidae) in particular as early morning fliers. Evidence on how night illumination affects catch, and on the times of night when illumination has most effect, is consistent for the two sites and for different years. However, any adjustment of nightly catches to those expected under standard conditions of illumination can only be approximate. Although most of the differences between catches at different moon phases are accounted for by night illumination, many factors influence catch on an individual night, and moonlight is a major factor only for certain species. A hypothesis about how a light-trap may affect insect behaviour allows changes in catch of some species over the lunar cycle to be explained by the influence of background illumination on trap effectiveness.

The effect of ground cover upon the communities of beneficial arthropods established in the canopy of lemon trees was investigated, by comparing three ground-cover management treatments applied: RV, resident vegetation; S, sowed selected species; and BS, bare soil by controlling weeds with herbicide. Over two consecutive years, arthropod communities in the tree canopy were sampled periodically by beating and suction techniques. Significantly higher numbers of beneficial arthropods were found in the RV and S treatments in comparison with bare soil. Spiders and parasitoid wasps were the two most common groups, representing, respectively, 70% and 19% of all catches in beating samples and 33% and 53% in suction samples. For the RV and S treatments, significant seasonal deviations from the bare soil treatment were observed using principal response curves. Similar seasonal patterns were observed over the two years. The RV and S treatments showed significant positive deviations from the BS treatment in late spring and summer, accounted for the higher numbers of parasitoid wasps, coccinelids and lacewings present. By contrast, the seasonal deviations observed for the spider community differed from those of the remaining arthropods. During late winter and early spring, the RV and S treatments presented a higher abundance of spiders in the tree canopy, in comparison with bare soil, whereas in the summer significantly more spiders were found in the bare soil treatment. Spider movements between tree canopy and ground vegetation layers may justify this result.

Maize (Zea mays) is a major staple food in Africa. However, maize production is severely reduced by damage caused by feeding lepidopteran pests. In East and Southern Africa, Chilo partellus is one of the most damaging cereal stem borers mainly found in the warmer lowland areas. In this study, it was hypothesized that the future distribution and abundance of C. partellus may be affected greatly by the current global warming. The temperature-dependent population growth potential of C. partellus was studied on artificial diet under laboratory conditions at six constant temperatures (15, 18, 20, 25, 28, 30, 32 and 35 °C), relative humidity of 75±5% and a photoperiod of L12:L12 h. Several non-linear models were fitted to the data to model development time, mortality and reproduction of the insect species. Cohort updating algorithm and rate summation approach were stochastically used for simulating age and stage structure populations and generate life-table parameters. For spatial analysis of the pest risk, three generic risk indices (index of establishment, generation number and activity index) were visualized in the geographical information system component of the advanced Insect Life Cycle modeling (ILCYM) software. To predict the future distribution of C. partellus we used the climate change scenario A1B obtained from WorldClim and CCAFS databases. The maps were compared with available data on the current distribution of C. partellus in Kenya. The results show that the development times of the different stages decreased with increasing temperatures ranging from 18 to 35 °C; at the extreme temperatures, 15 and 38 °C, no egg could hatch and no larvae completed development. The study concludes that C. partellus may potentially expands its range into higher altitude areas, highland tropics and moist transitional regions, with the highest maize potential where the species has not been recorded yet. This has serious implication in terms of food security since these areas produce approximately 80% of the total maize in East Africa.

The genus Phlebotomus has been much studied in recent years since the transmission of various diseases by some species has been established.It has now become a matter of importance to be able to identify species accurately in connection with the study of the epidemiology of the disease they are known or thought to transmit. It has been found that those which are closely related morphologically, often show marked biological differences and vary considerably in their rôle as transmitters of certain diseases.

Life-history parameters of different biotypes of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) species complex were reviewed. This included the B-biotype of B. tabaci, identified as B. argentifolii (Bellows & Perring). Comparisons were made among different biotypes on cotton, among host plants for biotype B and among the whitefly species B. tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood), the greenhouse whitefly. The biotype identification of different populations of B. tabaci was summarized in a table. Biotypes discussed were A, B, Indian and biotypes of the Old World group. Temperature dependent relationships were estimated for egg development rate, development rate from egg to adult, immature mortality, adult longevity, sex-ratio, pre-oviposition period and fecundity. The fitted curves will be used as input for a simulation model of the population dynamics of B. tabaci in a greenhouse when parasitoids are released. The model makes it possible to evaluate the integrated effect of different life-history parameters and behavioural parameters of parasitoids on whitefly population levels in a greenhouse.

The efficiency of miniature CDC light-traps in catching West African malaria vectors was evaluated during two rainy seasons in a village near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Traps were employed both indoors and outdoors using human baits protected by an insecticide-free mosquito-net and different sources of light. Indoors, light from incandescent bulbs increased the catch of Anopheles gambiae s.l. (mainly A. arabiensis Patton and the Mopti chromosomal form of A. gambiae s.s. Giles) and A. funestus Giles c. 2.5 times as compared to traps whose light bulb was removed. Conversely, the difference was not significant when a UV ‘Blacklight-blue’ fluorescent tube was compared to the incandescent bulb. Protecting the bait with a mosquito-net increased the catch c. 3 times for A. gambiae s.l. and c. 3.5 times for A. funestus. A prototype model of double bednet gave intermediate yields. Outdoors, the addition of incandescent bulbs to unlighted traps did not significantly increase the number of vectors caught, but the addition of the mosquito-net to the unprotected human bait did so by c. 1.5–4 times. Thus, the CDC light-trap hung close to a human sleeping under a bednet and fitted with an incandescent bulb, was considered the most practical and efficient in terms of numbers of vectors caught, consequently its indoor efficiency was compared to human landing catches on single collectors and estimated to be 1.08 times and density-independent. Outdoor light-trap catches were either not significantly correlated to biting collections (as for A. gambiae s.l.), or density-dependent in their efficiency (as for A. funestus); thus, they were not considered a reliable means for estimating malaria vector outdoor biting densities in this area. No difference was found in the parous rate of A. gambiae s.l. samples obtained with CDC light-traps and human landing collections.

The efficacy of the pupal parasitoid Spalangia cameroni Perkins as a biological control agent was tested against house flies Musca domestica Linnaeus and stable flies Stomoxys calcitrans (Linnaeus) in one dairy cattle and two pig installations in Denmark. Weekly releases of S. cameroni from April through to September–October 1999 and 2000 resulted in significant suppressions of house fly populations to below nuisance level, whereas no effect on stable flies was found. Parasitism was significantly higher in the release years compared to the control years, but was below 25% averaged over the fly season for each farm. A statistical model based on a functional relationship between the innate capacity of increase of the two fly species and three explanatory variables (air temperature, fly density and parasitism) provided a fairly good fit to data with the abundances of house flies and stable flies explained mostly by temperature, but intra- and interspecific competition, and parasitism had a significant effect as well. Overall, the model was capable of explaining 14% and 6.6% of the total variation in data for house fly and stable fly, respectively. Spalangia cameroni was the predominant parasitoid to emerge from exposed house fly pupae, but from mid summer onwards Muscidifurax raptor Girault & Sanders (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) was also quite common. The study indicated that biological control of house flies can be an efficient alternative to chemical control.

The effectiveness of a sex pheromone trap designed specifically to deliver conidia (infective fungal propagules) of the entomopathogenic fungus Zoophthora radicans Brefeld (Zygomycetes: Entomophthorales) to male Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) was investigated. In field experiments in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia, synthetic pheromone lures attracted adult males P. xylostella at all times of the day whereas lures of virgin female moths attracted males only between the hours of dusk and dawn, when females are known to produce their pheromone. Adult male moths attracted to traps baited with synthetic pheromone spent a geometric mean time of 88 seconds within the inoculation chamber, a time compatible with the period adults must spend within a shower of Z. radicans conidia produced by uniform mycelial mats in order to become infected. The field longevity of male and female P. xylostella adults was found to be similar, with individuals living for a mean time of 4.9 days. This was sufficient time for male moths to respond to the pheromone, enter the trap, become infected with Z. radicans and succumb to that infection in the field (3–3.5 days) thereby releasing infective conidia into the cabbage crop.

Flies attracted to odours from 500 to 11 500 kg of livestock were captured using electrified netting in the Zambesi Valley, Rhodesia. Catches of maleGlossina morsitansWestw., Tabanidae, Stomoxyinae and non-biting muscids reached maximum levels at odour concentrations produced by only 500–3500 kg of livestock, but catches of femaleG. morsitans and both sexes of G. pallidipes Aust. increased over the whole range of concentrations tested. With the maximum dose of odour, up to 7100 tsetse were caught in 3 h. The proportion of tenerals in catches of Glossina was not affected by odour concentration. Daily catches of Giossina were positively correlated with daily maximum temperatures. The maintenance of large catches of flies for 60 days and the indication that larger catches are possible suggest the feasibility of employing odour-baited traps for tsetse control.

Virgin females of Lobesia botrana Denis & Schiffermüller were mated at ages of 1, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 16 days and the effect of mating delay on reproductive output assessed. Delayed mating did not affect female mating success but fertilization was reduced in 16-day-old females. Increased mating delays substantially affected daily oviposition pattern and resulted in a significant reduction of both fecundity and fertility, so that mean number of viable eggs laid decreased from 150 to 22 in 1- and 16-day-old mated females, respectively. Heavier females were more constrained than lighter ones by mating delays and female reproductive efficiency (no. viable eggs/female body weight) was also significantly reduced. Female longevity significantly increased and oviposition period gradually declined with mating delay. The number of viable eggs was positively correlated with both female weight and oviposition period; female longevity and female weight were also significantly correlated. However, the significance of these correlations declined with increased mating delay. Results overall indicated that mating delay drastically reduces female L. botrana reproductive output. The implications of delayed mating of females are discussed from an ecological perspective in relation to L. botrana control using mating disruption.

Deciduous oak dieback in Japan has been known since the 1930s, but in the last ten years epidemics have intensified and spread to the island’s western coastal areas. The symbiotic ambrosia fungus Raffaelea sp. is the causal agent of oak dieback, and is vectored by Platypus quercivorus (Murayama). This is the first example of an ambrosia beetle fungus that kills vigorous trees. Mortality of Quercus crispula was approximately 40% but much lower for associated species of Fagaceae, even though each species had a similar number of beetle attacks. It is likely that other oaks resistant to the fungus evolved under a stable relationship between the tree, fungus and beetle during a long evolutionary process. Quercus crispula was probably not part of this coevolution. This hypothesis was supported by the fact that P. quercivorus showed the least preference for Q. crispulayet exhibited highest reproductive success in this species. Therefore, P. quercivorus could spread more rapidly in stands with a high composition of Q. crispula. The present oak dieback epidemic in Japan probably resulted from the warmer climate that occurred from the late 1980s which made possible the fateful encounter of P. quercivorus with Q. cripsula by allowing the beetle to extend its distribution to more northerly latitudes and higher altitudes. Future global warming will possibly accelerate the overlapping of the distributions of P. quercivorus and Q. crispula with the result that oak dieback in Q. crispula will become more prevalent in Japan.

The development period from birth to adult of alate and apterous virginoparae of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), reared on Brassica campestrisssp. chinensis, was measured at 13 constant and five natural temperature regimes. The day–degree model, the logistic equation, and the Wang model were used to describe the relationships between temperature and development rate at constant conditions. The constant temperature–development curves derived from the three models were used with a Weibull function describing the distribution of development times, to simulate the development of individuals of cohorts reared at natural temperature regimes. Comparison of the observed with simulated distributions of adult emergence indicates that all three models can simulate the development of M. persicaevery well when the temperature does not go below 4°C, the notional low temperature threshold of the day–degree model. When accumulation of temperatures below 4°C becomes substantial, only the logistic curve with a low temperature threshold of 0°C can offer accurate simulations; the other two models give falsely longer durations of development. Methods for accurately simulating the development of M. persicae in the field are suggested. The significance of modelling insect development at low temperatures by nonlinear models is discussed.

Predation on parasitized hosts can significantly affect natural enemy communities, and such intraguild predation may indirectly affect control of herbivore populations. However, the methodological challenges for studying these often complex trophic interactions are formidable. Here, we evaluate a DNA-based approach to track parasitism and predation on parasitized hosts in model herbivore-parasitoid-predator systems. Using singleplex polymerase chain reaction (SP-PCR) to target mtDNA of the parasitoid only, and multiplex PCR (MP-PCR) to additionally target host DNA as an internal amplification control, we found that detection of DNA from the parasitoid, Lysiphlebus testaceipes, in its aphid host, Aphis fabae, was possible as early as 5 min. post parasitism. Up to 24 h post parasitism SP-PCR proved to be more sensitive than MP-PCR in amplifying parasitoid DNA. In the carabid beetles Demetrias atricapillus and Erigone sp. spiders, fed with aphids containing five-day-old parasitoids, parasitoid and aphid DNA were equally detectable in both predator groups. However, when hosts containing two-day-old parasitoids were fed to the predators, detection of parasitoid prey was possible only at 0 h (immediately after consumption) and up to 8 h post consumption in carabids and spiders, respectively. Over longer periods of time, post-feeding prey detection success was significantly higher in spiders than in carabid beetles. MP-PCR, in which parasitoid and aphid DNA were simultaneously amplified, proved to be less sensitive at amplifying prey DNA than SP-PCR. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that PCR-based parasitoid and prey detection offers an exciting approach to further our understanding of host-parasitoid-predator interactions.