Question

1. Give some examples of non-feeding larvae from several phyla or other tax Give some examples of feeding larvae from several phyla or taxa. Use appropriate names for the phyla and the larval types. How does having a nonfeeding larva fundamentally alter the ecology and population biology of an organism?

Answer 1

Rarely you will see non feeding (NF) condition in the larva, as we know that larva is an important stage of their life cycle and this phase is important for the complete metamorphosis in animals especially for insects. Non-feeding (NF) is not essential in this insect for the transformation to the pre-nymph condition and inherited nutrition from parents. Several mites exhibits such kind of behaviour us common in phytoseiid group of athropods. Some examples are mite who show the non feeding beahvious:

Typhlodromus bambusae or T. bambusae

Three species of Amblyseius such as

A. eharai, A. degenerans, and A. spp. (several other species).

Both kind of behaviour evolved in single groups, which is phytoseiid as they show both display feeding as well as non-feeding. Phylum is Arthropoda for these larvae. Feeding is important to maintain a cycle in the ecosystem (as they remove waste material through feeding behaviour). Technically they don't contribute significantly in ecology and population biology perspectives but prevent cannibalism and modulate the environment.