Parasitoids searching for polyphagous herbivores can find their hosts in a variety of habitats. Under this scenario, chemical cues from the host habitat (not related to the host) represent poor indicators of host location. Hence, it is unlikely that naïve females show a strong response to host habitat cues, which would become important only if the parasitoids learn to associate such cues to the...

Functional response and mutual interference are the most important behavioural characteristics that reveal different aspects of host–parasitoid interactions. In this study, functional response and mutual interference of the parasitoid wasp, Diaeretiella rapae (M’Intosh) attacking the cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) were investigated. Logistic regression was used to distinguish t...

Variation of host quality affects population dynamics of parasitoids, even at the landscape scale. What causes host quality to vary and the subsequent mechanisms by which parasitoid population dynamics are affected can be complex. Here, we examine the indirect interaction of a plant pathogen with a parasitoid wasp. Under laboratory conditions, parasitoids from hosts fed fungus-infected plants w...

BACKGROUND Maternally-transmitted associations between endosymbiotic bacteria and insects are ubiquitous. While many of these associations are obligate and mutually beneficial, many are facultative, and the mechanism(s) by which these microbes persist in their host lineages remain elusive. Inherited microbes with imperfect transmission are expected to be lost from their host lineages if no othe...

A huge variety of Arthropod species is infected with endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria that manipulate their host's reproduction to invade populations. In addition to vertical transmission from mother to offspring through the egg cytoplasm, it has been demonstrated through phylogenetic analyses and natural transfer experiments that horizontal transmission of Wolbachia (i.e. contagion) can occur ...

An undescribed wasp, Pteromalus nr. myopitae (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) opportunistically parasitizes the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae), an introduced pest of olives in California. The native or typical host of P. nr. myopitae is unknown. We demonstrate that P. nr. myopitae is a solitary, ectoparasitic, idiobiont parasitoid of the third instar host inside frui...

A new species of parasitoid wasp (Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from the kingdom Saudi Arabia (KSA) is described, Microplitis idreesae sp. nov. The genus reported for first time in Eastern province KSA. This host-parasitoid association documented country. attacks Mythimna Ochsenheimer (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). Natural history information provided such as males with females, geographical location,...

Autoparasitoids, an important class of intraguild predators used in classical biological control, have a unique biology. Females develop as primary endoparasitoids of scale insects and whiteflies. Males develop at the expense of conspecific or heterospecific parasitoid prepupae. To evaluate the effect of autoparasitism on host suppression, system stability, and parasitoid coexistence, stage-str...

Central to the concept of ecological speciation is the evolution of ecotypes, i.e. groups of individuals occupying different ecological niches. However, the mechanisms behind the first step of separation, the switch of individuals into new niches, are unclear. One long-standing hypothesis, which was proposed for insects but never tested, is that early learning causes new ecological preferences,...

The egg parasitoid, Trichogramma (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), is used extensively around the world as a biological control agent for the control of lepidopterous pests. Wasps are either released to augment an existing population “inoculative release,” or they are released in large numbers to coincide with maximum pest pressure “inundative release.” Field releases however, have had variable...