In other genus of Culicidae family (e.g. Culiseta, Anopheles, ....) is cannibalism confirmed. Usualy, the younger larvae became a prey for older larval instars.
In Culex cannibalism is observed in several species pipens and lutzia group as they developed cutting type of mouth parts. we have encountered a species Culex lutzia fuscana which feeds on other species larvae but in case other species were not found it is evident that they feed on there own species which can be smaller in size that is not by choice but by cumpulsion when they have no choice. for reference u can read but they are not specific to culex pipens :
Predatory habits of Lutzia (Metalutzia) fuscana (Wiedmann) (Diptera: Culicidae) in the arid environments of Jodhpur, western Rajasthan, India
Invasion of the predatory mosquito Culex (Lutzia) fuscanus in the western desert parts of Rajasthan, India
In my experiments with Bacillus sphaericus I observed cannibalism of Culex pipiens larvae. In concentrations of B.s. which provided 40-70% mortality, larvae which showed no symptoms of poisoning fed larvae which were obviously poisoned. Unfortunately, these data were not published yet.
Best regards,
Igor
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