the relationship between female oviposition preference and offspring performance is a key area of study on the evolution of host specificity. this study investigates host prefer-ence of the polyphagous hover fly syrphus ribesii (diptera: syrphidae) and compares it with some components of its offspring`s performance. females and offspring were tested on six naturally used aphid hosts (blackberry...

background: biting habit of mosquitoes plays an important role in the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. mosquitoes use a set of elaborate sensory modalities to find their preferred hosts by exploiting cues emanating from a nearby host. it has been suggested that the chemical profile of skin can provide further support for anthropophilic mosquito species to find their suitable hosts. this...

the influence of parasitoids on population dynamics is affected by host instar preference. the preference pattern of host instars is not fixed and is modified by the availability and relative abundance of host instars, intensity of defensive behaviors in a particular instar, and also maternal effects of the female forager. in this study, host instar preference of the thelytokous strain of lysip...

Host-associated mating is crucial in maintaining the partial reproductive isolation between the host races of Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae), a fly that forms galls on Solidago altissima and S. gigantea. (We refer to flies reared from S. gigantea as gigantea flies and those reared from S. altissima as altissima flies.) We measured the host preference of males and females of both hos...

Parasitoids searching for polyphagous herbivores can find their hosts in a variety of habitats. Under this scenario, chemical cues from the host habitat (not related to the host) represent poor indicators of host location. Hence, it is unlikely that naïve females show a strong response to host habitat cues, which would become important only if the parasitoids learn to associate such cues to the...

melon ladybeetle, epilachna chrysomelina (f.) is one of the most injurious cucurbit attacking pests. sampling program and host preference of this ladybeetle were studied in ahvaz, southwest iran. suitable sample size, suitable location for sampling as well as suitable sampling life stage of the insect were obtained to be 12 on, lower leaf surface and egg stage of the ladybeetle, respectively. e...