Survival and cannibalism in free and confined populations of Tribolium confusum (Duval)

The paper is aimed at determining mechanisms that control numbers of coeval cohort as well as ccological conscquences of cannibalistic predation resulting from the fact of impossibility to leave the medium. The experiment was based on comparison of survival in one generation of T. confusum from eggs to adults in free cultures (with a possibility of migration) and that of confined cultures with initial density of eggs increasing from 30 to 300 per g of medium. Considerably higher survival and a faster post-embryonic development were observed in free cultures.