Over the past decade a proliferation of research has enriched and dramatically altered our understanding of the biology of figs, their pollinator wasps, and the myriad of other organisms that depend on them. Ecologically, this work underscores the crucial role that fig fruits play in sustaining and shaping tropical frugivore communities. More generally, this work addresses several key issues in...

learning host or prey-related olfactory cues may lead to increase efficiency and foraging capacity of biocontrol agents such as trichogramma egg parasitoid wasps in nature. the egg parasitoids, trichogramma species (hym., chalcidoidea, trichogrammatidae), are most commonly and important biocontrol agents that have successfully been utilized against several lepidopteran pests, especially through...

The relationship between body size and fitness in parasitoid wasps has several effects on parasitic ability, reproductive behavior in female wasps, and progeny fitness. Female wasps with various body sizes were obtained by mass-rearing a gregarious ectoparasitoid, Sclerodermus pupariae, which is one of the excellent parasites to control the larvae and pupae of Buprestidae and Cerambycidae. We i...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Pollinator-mediated selection and evolution of floral traits have long fascinated evolutionary ecologists. No other plant family shows as wide a range of pollinator-linked floral forms as Orchidaceae. In spite of the large size of this model family and a long history of orchid pollination biology, the identity and specificity of most orchid pollinators remains inadequately s...

Although overall pollinator populations have declined over the last couple of decades, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) malady, colony collapse disorder (CCD), has caused major concern in the agricultural community. Among honey bee pathogens, RNA viruses are emerging as a serious threat and are suspected as major contributors to CCD. Recent detection of these viral species in bumble bees suggests...

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Declines in pollinator populations may harm biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Little attention has, however, been paid to the systemic response of mutualistic communities to global environmental change. Using a modelling approach and merging network theory with theory on critical transitions, we show that the scale and nature of critical transitions is likely to be influenced by the a...