abstract competition is a phenomenon that influences the size, structure and stability of insect communities, particularly on solitary endoparasitoids species. although, competition normally incurs costs, it might be adaptive for the surviving individual. to determine which factors affect the patch use strategy of foragers under competition, the effect of previous experience with hosts already-...

abstract parasitic insects face many decisions when foraging for host, some for example frequently have to make decisions with regard to staying in or leaving their current patch. in this study, we investigated how the foraging and oviposition behavior of lysiphlebus fabarum is influenced by (1) a female’s previous experience of encountering aphids host and (2) age of female parasitoids. to tes...

the black bean aphid, aphis fabae scopoli, is a major pest of broad bean, vicia faba l. and sugar beet, beta vulgaris l., the most abundant parasitoid of a. fabae in agroecosystems is lysiphlebus fabarum (marshall), a multivoltine species with mainly thelytokous reproduction in central europe. since l. fabarum females mimic ants to obtain honeydew directly from aphids it was reasoned that a fem...

introduction: mass production of natural enemies has been considered a necessity for biological control programs. most beneficial insects have a relatively short shelf-life, so suppliers do not have a sufficient number of biocontrol agents. the development of storage techniques for biocontrol agents provides flexibility and efficiency in mass production. cold storage by prolonging insect develo...