Tephritid fruit fly parasitoids use fruit-derived chemical cues and the vibrations that result from larval movements to locate hosts sequestered inside fruit. However, compounds produced by the larvae themselves have not been previously described nor their significance to parasitoid foraging determined. We collected the volatiles from four species of tropical and subtropical Tephritidae: Anast...

Many insects carry facultative bacterial symbionts, which provide benefits including resistance to natural enemies and abiotic stresses. Little is known about how these beneficial phenotypes are affected when biotic or abiotic threats occur simultaneously. The pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) can host several well-characterized symbiont species. The symbiont known as X-type can protect against b...

Two natural enemy species are frequently released simultaneously to control one pest species in augmentative biological control in greenhouses. Intraguild predation (IGP) and interspecific competition between natural enemies might affect the biological control. IGP occurs between two parasitoids, between one parasitoid and one predator, and between two predators. Although unidirectional IGP has...

Diaugia angusta Perty, 1833 is a Neotropical species of Tachinidae (Diptera) reported here as a parasitoid of Metamasius ensirostris (Germar, 1824) and Metamasius hemipterus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) in Brazil. Several species of Dryophthoridae and Curculionidae cause damage to bromeliad and palm species, and most are regarded as pests. In the present study, the male and fem...

Immature development of parasitoid wasps is restricted to resources found in a single host that is often similar in size to the adult parasitoid. When two or more parasitoids of the same or different species attack the same host, there is competition for monopolization of host resources. The success of intrinsic competition differs between parasitoids attacking growing hosts and parasitoids att...

Spatially structured models of host-parasitoid interactions exhibit self-structuring into spatial patterns such as spiral waves and turbulence. We discuss the consequences of these patterns in an eco-evolutionary model of host-parasitoid interactions with evolution of the parasitoids' ability to disperse towards dense populations of hosts (termed the aggregation strength). It turns out that the...

Estimating the immunocompetence of herbivore insects under elevated CO2 is an important step in understanding the effects of elevated CO2 on crop-herbivore-natural enemy interactions. Current study determined the effect of elevated CO2 on the immune response of Helicoverpa armigera against its parasitoid Microplitis mediator. H. armigera were reared in growth chambers with ambient or elevated C...

The egg-larval parasitoid Chelonus insularis Cresson is a key parasitoid of the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) during the second fi eld generation in the upper Magdalena River Basin, Colombia. In spite of selection pressure, the higher susceptibility of the second generation fall armyworm larvae to insecticides, compared with that of the fi rst generation, suggests that the p...

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a disease associated with the bacteria "Candidatus Liberibacter spp." and has been devastating citrus orchards around the world. Its management involves control of the insect vector, the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri Kuwayama. However, the indiscriminate use of chemicals has caused pest outbreaks and eliminated the natural enemies of the vector, such as the parasi...

1. An increasing number of studies have addressed the mechanisms by which plant inter-specific variation influence interactions at higher trophic levels, but little is known about the underlying plant traits driving these dynamics. 2. Here we investigated the effects of host plant species on herbivore-parasitoid interactions and the underlying traits driving such effects. For this, we measured ...