BACKGROUND In group-living animals, social interactions and their effects on other life activities such as foraging are commonly determined by discrimination among group members. Accordingly, many group-living species evolved sophisticated social recognition abilities such as the ability to recognize familiar individuals, i.e. individuals encountered before. Social familiarity may affect within...

Predation is a major selective force for the evolution of behavioural characteristics of prey. Predation among consumers competing for food is termed intraguild predation (IGP). From the perspective of individual prey, IGP differs from classical predation in the likelihood of occurrence because IG prey is usually more rarely encountered and less profitable because it is more difficult to handle...

Biological control can be severely disrupted by hot and dry environmental conditions associated with climate change. These may alter the food web configuration of arthropod communities through their effects on species interactions. They could disrupt competition between phytoseiid predators Euseius stipulatus, Neoseiulus californicus, Phytoseiulus persimilis, which are key natural enemies Tetra...