Mature odonates cannibalisng tenerals
The cannibalism cases in odonates where the mature individuals predating
on teneral individuals have only been observed in Zygoptera, 20
instances (29.7%) (Supplementary Table 4; Fig. 2). We found that a
higher proportion of teneral males were prey (eight instances) than the
teneral females (with four cases). Our findings support Corbet’s (1999)
observation that, in Zygoptera mature adults predate mostly on tenerals
males. Teneral cannibalism in odonates most likely occurs because of
recognition error or could be opportunistic as the tenerals are easy
prey (Corbet 1999).