Does the mating status or body size of a female parasitoid wasp affect her host size choice or propensity to burrow? In Spalangia endius, using smaller hosts appears to reduce a female’s cost of parasitization but not her son’s fitness. However, virgin females, which produce only sons, did not preferentially parasitize smaller hosts. Mated females also showed no host size preference. Mated fema...

Parasitoid wasps lay female eggs or a high proportion of female eggs in favourable host insects because female wasps require many more resources during their development. Many studies have tested the effects of host physiological status on the sex allocation of parasitoids, but few have attempted to test the effects of host behavioural traits. Cotesia glomerata is a gregarious parasitoid wasp t...

Communities of insect herbivores and their natural enemies are rich and ecologically crucial components of terrestrial biodiversity. Understanding the processes that promote their origin and maintenance is thus of considerable interest. One major proposed mechanism is ecological speciation through host-associated differentiation (HAD), the divergence of a polyphagous species first into ecologic...

The population dynamics of a parasite depend on species traits, host dynamics and the environment. Those dynamics are reflected in the genetic structure of the population. Habitat fragmentation has a greater impact on parasites than on their hosts because resource distribution is increasingly fragmented for species at higher trophic levels. This could lead to either more or less genetic structu...

the pea aphid, acyrthosiphon pisum (harris) is one of the most important pests of pea throughout the world.host stage preference under choice and no-choice tests and age-specific functional response of praon volucre (haliday) parasitizing a. pisum were investigated. the experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions at 25 ± 1 °c, 60 ± 5% rh and a photoperiod of 14: 10 h (l: d). functi...

The wasp Spalangia endius Walker (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) is a major parasitoid of the pupae of fruit flies, which are a common agricultural pest. An understanding of this intricate host-parasitoid interaction could provide basic information necessary for the sustainable integrated biological control of fruit flies. In this study, we investigated the effect of S. endius on different-aged pup...

the greenhouse whitefly, trialeurodes vaporariorum westwood (hem.: aleyrodidae) is a polyphagous and key pest that causes damaging to wide range of crops. the parasitoid wasp, eretmocerus delhiensis mani (hym.: aphelinidae) is a syn-ovigenic and thelytokous species that parasitizing greenhouse whitefly nymphs. in order to evaluation parasitoid wasp, eretmocerus delhiensis mani (hym.: aphelinida...

Symbionts are widespread and might have a substantial effect on the outcome of interactions between species, such as in host-parasitoid systems. Here, we studied the effects of symbionts on the outcome of host-parasitoid interactions in a four-partner system, consisting of the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardi, its two hosts Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, the wasp virus LbFV, and t...

Some bees and wasps that host mites have peculiar pocket-like structures called acarinaria. These have long been considered as morphological adaptations to securely transfer beneficial mites into nests, and thus are thought to be the product of a mutualistic relationship. However, there has been little compelling evidence to support this hypothesis. We demonstrated that the parasitic mite Ensli...