4 Allee effects and parasitism are common biological phenomena observed in nature, which are believed to have significant impacts in ecological conservation programs. In this article, we investigate the population dynamics of host-parasitoid systems with Allee effects induced by predation satiation in host to study the effects of Allee effects and parasitism as well as the timing of parasite’s ...

Diverse parasite taxa share hosts both at the population level and within individual hosts, and their interactions, ranging from competitive exclusion to facilitation, can drive community structure and dynamics. Emergent pathogens have the potential to greatly alter community interactions. We found that an emergent fungal entomopathogen dominated pre-existing lethal parasites in populations of ...

The hymenopteran parasitoid, Theocolax elegans (Westwood), and transgenic avidin maize powder were tested to determine if their individual or combined use would protect stored grain from infestation by both internal and external insect pests. Small-scale tests were conducted in plastic jars containing 3 kg of nontransgenic maize. We tested treatments of 0.3% powdered avidin maize, the parasitoi...

This paper considers the dynamics of a two-dimensional discrete-time model for host-parasitoid interactions, and shows that the model has two attractors: the fixed point where two species coexist and a boundary cycle where the parasitoid is absent. The analysis with the Liapunov exponent confirms that this kind of bistability is common in this model. The generality of this phenomenon in host-pa...

Understanding interactions between herbivores and parasitoids is essential for successful biodiversity protection and monitoring and for biological pest control. Morphological identifications employ insect rearing and are complicated by insects' high diversity and crypsis. DNA barcoding has been successfully used in studies of host-parasitoid interactions as it can substantially increase the re...

A 2-year field cage experiment was conducted in Beaumont, Texas to estimate parasitism of sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), by Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) on rice. A lab experiment showed that the number of hosts parasitized per female per day reached a maximum (0.961) at 28 C. Parasitized larvae recovered from the field experiment produced an average of 27.9 ± 19.1 ( x ± s.d.) parasit...

Full-length mariner-like elements (MLEs) were identified from both a parasitoid wasp, Ascogaster reticulatus, and its moth host, Adoxophyes honmai. MLEs were detected in two related Tortricid moths, but not in another Ascogaster species. The MLEs of A. reticulatus and A. honmai were 97.6% identical in DNA sequence. This high similarity suggests a recent horizontal transfer, probably from the mo...

Much literature is dedicated to the study of density dependence in host-parasitoid systems. The theoretical literature identifies two potential stabilization mechanisms relating the response of the parasitoid to host density. One is a behavioral response that occurs at a local level, and the other is a demographic response that occurs at a larger spatial scale with heterogeneous patches of host...

Many parasites modify their host behaviour to improve their own transmission and survival, but the proximate mechanisms remain poorly understood. An original model consists of the parasitoid Dinocampus coccinellae and its coccinellid host, Coleomegilla maculata; during the behaviour manipulation, the parasitoid is not in contact with its host anymore. We report herein the discovery and characte...

The extraordinary diversity of tropical herbivores may be linked to hostplant specialization driven in part by variation in pressure from natural enemies. We quantified levels of host-specificity and parasitoid attack for the specialist herbivore, Eois (Geometridae). The goals of this research were to examine: 1) whether Eois are specialized on the genus Piper (Piperaceae) and if hostplant spec...