Assassin snails (Anentome helena) as a biological model for exploring the effects of individual specialisation within generalist predators.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying feeding behaviour of generalist predators at the population and individual levels is crucial for understanding the structure and functioning of food webs. Individual predator/consumer feeding niches can be significantly narrower than that of the population across animal taxa. In such species, the population of a generalist predator becomes essentially an ensemble of specialist individuals and this often highly affects the dynamics of the prey-predator interactions. Currently, few experimental systems exist that are both easily technically manipulated in a lab and are reliable to accurately assess effects of individual specialisation within generalist predators. Here we argue that a freshwater predaceous snail, Anentome helena (also known as an 'assassin snail'), is a convenient

SUBMITTER: Berkhout BW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8920249 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature