![]() ![]() Whether each predator ate flower visitors was also recorded. The predators were quantified using “snapshot” counts (cf., Garbuzov and Ratnieks 2014), in which the number of predators on flowers or other plant organs <150 mm from the flowers was determined nearly instantaneously by eye (total observation time 16.1 h). Field observations were conducted at eight sites (grassland, wetland, garden, and forest) where flowering individuals of focal plant species were abundant (Appendix S1: Table S1). These plants attract nocturnal flower visitors, such as moths (Appendix S1: Methods S1). To estimate the abundance of nocturnal predators on flowers, we counted the numbers of ambush predators on nine plant species at night during July–October 2019 in western Honshu, Japan (Table 1, Appendix S1: Methods S1, Table S1). Predation rate = (numbers of visitors eaten)/(numbers of visitors within mantis attack range). Attack success rate = (numbers of visitors eaten by mantises)/(numbers of visitors attacked by mantises). Attack rate = (numbers of visitors attacked by mantises)/(numbers of visitors within mantis attack range). (E) The rates of attack, attack success, and predation on flower visitors by praying mantises during the day and at night (Appendix S1: Table S7). (D) A mantisfly ( Austroclimaciella quadrituberculata) eating a settling moth ( Rhynchina cramboides) on Vincetoxicum pycnostelma. (C) A house centipede ( Thereuopoda clunifera) eating a hawkmoth ( Agrius convolvuli) on C. (B) A mantis ( Hierodula patellifera) eating a hawkmoth ( Theretra japonica) on Clerodendrum trichotomum. (A) A mantis ( Tenodera sinensis) eating a settling moth ( Sarcopolia illoba) on Eupatorium lindleyanum. Nocturnal ambush predators preying on flower‐visiting moths. However, few studies have quantified the abundance of nocturnal predators on flowers and their predation pressures on nocturnal pollinators in the field. Nocturnal moths on flowers are reportedly eaten by spiders (Morse 1983), mantises (Delf and Harris 1964), and bats (Martins and Johnson 2013). This suggests that ambush predators such as praying mantises prey on nocturnal pollinators, as they do on diurnal pollinators. On 19 September 2018, we found a praying mantis, Tenodera sinensis (Mantodea: Mantidae), eating a moth, Sarcopolia illoba (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), on flowers of Eupatorium lindleyanum (Asteraceae) at night in Hyogo, Japan (Fig. Although nocturnal insects such as moths are important pollinators of many flowering plants (Hahn and Brühl 2016), the impact of ambush predators on nocturnal pollinators remains unclear. Thus, ambush predators can diminish the reproductive success of flowering plants (Gonçalves‐Souza et al. Ambush predators such as spiders affect the flower‐visiting behavior of diurnal pollinators such as bees (Dukas 2001, Dukas and Morse 2003), potentially causing diurnal pollinators to avoid flowers where ambush predators wait (Dukas 2001). ![]()
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