SUMMARY1. The functional response of the filter‐feeding blackfly larvaFrosimulium mixtum/fuscumwas examined in laboratory experiments. We focused on the relationship between a component of the particle handling process (the cephalic fan flick rate) and ingestion rate, to determine whether ingestion rate is limited by handling‐time. The influence of food deprivation on ingestion rate and feeding efficiency also was assessed.2. Ingestion rate rose asymptotically with increasing food availability, leveling off at a concentration of about 100 mg1−1. Satiation did not account for this plateau. Flick rate (the frequency with which larvae open and close their cephalic fans) increased in a similar fashion, though flick rate only accounted for about two‐thirds of the variation in ingestion rate.3. A simple equation describing the components of the feeding process in blackfly larvae was developed to investigate alternate flick rate ‘decision rules’ capable of predicting relationships between food concentration, flick rate and ingestion rate. The flick rate did not follow a fixed time rule, in which larvae allow particles to accumulate in the fan for a fixed amount of time prior to retraction. For most food densities, flick rate patterns more closely approximated a fixed number rule, in which fans are retracted after a fixed number of particles accumulate.4. Flick rate rose with increasing food concentration even after the ingestion rate had levelled off, whereas several optimal filter‐feeding models predict that filtering rate should decline as food concentration increases above this level. This predicted behavior was not observed because the number of particles ingested per flick failed to increase with increasing food concentration.5. The efficiency of particle ingestion (number ingested × number available−1× 100) was very low (<0.1%), and declined with increasing food concentration.6. An increase in food deprivation time prior to a feeding trial produced a significant increase in flick rate, ingestion rate and feeding efficiency. This adjustment of feeding behaviour allowed animals to replace their gut contents more quickly following longer periods of food deprivation, which agrees with the qualitative predictions of optimal dige