Trichogramma wasps are tiny hymenopterous egg parasitoids widely used in biological control programs worldwide. The huge quantities of insects necessary for inundative releases are mainly produced on factitious hosts like Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), or on silkworms. In order to simplify production, increase its flexibility, and potentially reduce cost, studies on arti...

Potter wasps belong to the subfamily Eumeninae of the family Vespidae. Potter wasp is a common name given for a group of caterpillar hunting wasp which builds the pot-shaped mud nests. Initially the wasp constructs the nest and then starts hunting for its prey, the caterpillars. The prey is stung and paralyzed by the wasp then brought to the nest. It is perhaps a very highly specific behavior o...

Biological control of pest insects by natural enemies may be an effective, cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic pesticides. The cosmopolitan parasitoid wasp species Bracon brevicornis Wesmael B. hebetor Say (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) use lepidopteran as hosts, including insect pests like Ephestia kuehniella or Ostrinia nubilalis . Here, we compare the reproductive success ...

Plants, phytophagous insects and their parasitoids form the most diverse assemblages of macroscopic organisms on earth. Enclosed in particular represent a tractable system for studying community assembly diversification. Communities associated with widespread plant species are especially suitable as they facilitate comparative approach. Pantropical fig-wasp communities remarkably well-replicate...

Insect parasitoids, and the arthropod hosts they consume during development, are important ecological players in almost all environments across globe. As ectothermic organisms, both parasitoid host strongly impacted by environmental temperature. If thermal tolerances differ between insect parasitoid, then outcome of their interaction will be determined ambient mean temperatures continue to rise...

Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria belonging to the a-Proteobacteria (O'Neill et al., 1992; Rousset et al., 1992). They are known to infect a wide range of arthropods (Werren & O'Neill, 1997) and nematodes (Bandi et al., 1998). Wolbachia endosymbionts can alter their host's reproduction (reviewed in O'Neill et al., 1997) by: (i) reproductive incompatibility (termed cytoplasmic incompatibility...

Despite extensive research on mechanisms generating biases in sex ratios, the capacity of natural enemies to shift or further skew operational sex ratios following sex allocation and parental care remains largely unstudied in natural populations. Male cocoons of the sawfly Neodiprion abietis (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae) are consistently smaller than those of females, with very little overlap, and...