Insect parasitoids lay their eggs in arthropods. Some parasitoid species not only use their arthropod host for oviposition but also for feeding. Host feeding provides nutrients to the adult female parasitoid. However, in many species, host feeding destroys an opportunity to oviposit. For parasitoids that attack Homoptera, honeydew is a nutrient-rich alternative that can be directly imbibed from...

Eretmocerus eremicus is the most abundant parasitoid of the Bemisia complex in North America. It can parasitize equally successfully the most common whiteflies in greenhouses, Trialeurodes vaporariorum and the Bemisia complex. The parasitoid is used in Europe for whitefly control, either alone or in combination with releases of Encarsia formosa. Life-cycle and demographic parameters of this par...

Autoparasitoids with the capacity of consuming primary parasitoids that share the same hosts to produce males are analogous to intraguild predators. The use of autoparasitoids in biological control programs is a controversial matter because there is little evidence to support the view that autoparasitoids do not disrupt and at times may promote suppression of insect pests in combination with pr...