The tachinid parasitoid Chetogena scutellaris (Wulp) was reared from southern armyworm, Spodoptera eridania (Cramer), a new host record. When reared in cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner), (a new host) and in fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), in the laboratory, C. scutellaris developed successfully ca. 30% of the time. Success of parasitism depended on the numbers of eggs...

Abstract This topic presents a study on host–parasitoid model with Holling type III functional response. In population dynamics, when host density rises, the parasitoid response initially accelerates due to parasitoid’s improved searching efficiency. However, above certain threshold, will reach saturation level influence of reducing handling time. Thus, we incorporated into characterize such ph...

Plants attacked by herbivorous insects emit volatile compounds that attract predators or parasitoids of the herbivores. Plant fitness increases when these herbivorous insects are parasitized by solitary parasitoids, but whether gregarious koinobiont parasitoids also confer a benefit to plant fitness has been disputed. We investigated the relationship between parasitoid load of the gregarious Co...

Under commercial poinsettia production conditions we compared two patterns of parasitoid release for the aphelinid whitefly parasitoid Eretmocerus eremicus Rose and Zolnerowich. We compared the currently used pattern of a fixed weekly release number (3 females per plant per week) to an experimental pattern in which more parasitoids were released early in the crop (wks 1-8), followed by a lower ...

Specialization is a central concept in ecology and one of the fundamental properties of parasitoids. Highly specialized parasitoids tend to be more efficient in host-use compared to generalized parasitoids, presumably owing to the trade-off between host range and host-use efficiency. However, it remains unknown how parasitoid host specificity and host-use depends on host traits related to susce...

Understanding the dynamics of potential inter- and intraspecific competition in parasitoid communities is crucial in the screening of efficient parasitoid species and for utilization of the best parasitoid species combinations. In this respect, the host-parasitoid systems, Bemisia tabaci and two parasitoids, Eretmocerus hayati (exotic) and Encarsia sophia (existing) were studied under laborator...

Chelonus inanitus (Braconidae) is a solitary egg-larval parasitoid which lays its eggs into eggs of Spodoptera littoralis (Noctuidae); the parasitoid larva then develops in the haemocoel of the host larva. Host embryonic development lasts approx. 3.5 days while parasitoid embryonic development lasts approx. 16 h. All stages of host eggs can be successfully parasitized, and we show here that eit...

Laboratory selection for fenvalerate resistance was conducted in two colonies of the parasitoid, Cotesia plutellae, reared on two colonies of its host, Plutella xylostella, which differed in resistance to the insecticide. In the selection regime, the insecticide was applied to the host larvae that harboured the parasitoid larvae. Compared with the unselected parasitoid colony, the parasitoid co...

Despite the diverse array of mating systems and life histories which characterise the parasitic Hymenoptera, sexual selection and sexual conflict in this taxon have been somewhat overlooked. For instance, parasitoid mating systems have typically been studied in terms of how mating structure affects sex allocation. In the past decade, however, some studies have sought to address sexual selection...