Interspecific Chemical Competition Between Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Reduces Fecundity and Hastens Development Time

The flour beetles Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and Tribolium confusum (du Val) are model organisms for studying the effects of intra- and interspecific competition. Both species are known to compete directly through egg cannibalism and indirectly through the density-dependent release of allelopathic chemicals. To better characterize these indirect interactions, recent work has focused on quantifying the per-capita effects of intraspecific...