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Predator–prey interactions presumably play major roles in shaping the composition and dynamics of microbial communities. However, little is understood about the population biology of such interactions or how predation-related parameters vary or correlate across prey environments. Myxococcus xanthus is a motile soil bacterium that feeds on a broad range of other soil microbes that vary greatly in the degree to which they support M. xanthus growth. In order to decompose predator–prey interactions at the population level, we quantified five predation-related parameters during M. xanthus growth on nine phylogenetically diverse bacterial prey species. The horizontal expansion rate of swarming predator colonies fueled by prey lawns served as our measure of overall predatory performance, as it incorporates both the searching (motility) and handling (killing and consumption of prey) components of …