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...

The influence of temperature on life history traits of the egg parasitoid Quadrastichus haitiensis (Gahan) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) was investigated in the laboratory on eggs of the root weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Duration of development from egg to adult decreased from 39.99 ± 0.27 days to 13.57 ± 0.07 days (mean ± SE) as temperature increased from 20 to 33...

Superparasitism refers to the oviposition behavior of parasitoid females who lay their eggs in an already parasitized host. This often yields intense competition among larvae that are sharing the same host. Why would a female oviposit in such hostile habitat instead of looking for a better quality, unparasitized host? Here we present a continuous-time model of host-parasitoid interaction and di...

1. Cyclic dynamics of various periods are pervasive in many insect populations where interactions with natural enemies are known to be important. How stage-structured processes within the host population, such as competition and cannibalism, affect these interactions has received little attention so far. 2. Using the well-studied laboratory host–parasitoid system of Plodia interpunctella and Ve...

Diachasmimorpha kraussii (Fullaway) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was first released against Bactrocera latifrons (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Hawaii in March 2003. Over a three month period, eight releases, totaling 7,696 females and 3,968 males, were made in a turkeyberry, Solanum torvum Swartz (Solanales: Solanaceae) patch known to have a well established B. latifrons population. The estab...

Parasitoids display remarkable inter- and intraspecific variation in their reproductive and associated traits. Adaptive explanations have been proposed for many of the between-trait relationships. We present an overview of the current knowledge of parasitoid reproductive biology, focusing on egg production strategies in females, by placing parasitoid reproduction within physiological and ecolog...

The reproductive success of a foraging parasitoid may be limited by the number of eggs that she produces and/or the number of hosts that she can locate. Despite the significance for population dynamics and numerous areas of behavioural ecology, the relative importance of these factors remains an issue of contention. Attempts to resolve this controversy have been hindered because estimating the ...

To date, information is wanting with regard to the use of new exotic parasitoids against olive fruit fly, Bactrocera (=Dacus) oleae (Gmelin) (Diptera: Tephritidae), a serious pest of olives Olea europaea L., in the Mediterranean basin. We investigated the oviposition response and developmental biology on B. oleae of Fopius (=Biosteres) arisanus (Sonan) (=Opius oophilus Fullaway) (Hymenoptera: B...

objective: in this study the efficacy of two agent of this biological control agent of corn stem borer in corn fields compared with common synthetic insecticides endosolfan to find a suitable alternative for chemical control of pests in corn fields. methods: in order to evaluate the efficiency of biocontrol agents of corn stem borer ,ostrinia nubilalis, experiment was conducted in a randomized ...

Egg limitation is known to destabilize host-parasitoid dynamics. This study reexamines the effect of egg limitation in light of the individual variation in parasitization risk among hosts (e.g., some hosts are more likely to be parasitized than others). Previous studies have considered egg limitation (predicted as a destabilizing factor) and individual variation among hosts (predicted as a stab...