In Pakistan, the cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Sternorrhyncha (Homoptera): Pseudococcidae), is a serious pest of many cultivated plants. A parasitoid, Aenasius bambawalei Hayat (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), is associated with P. solenopsis. In order to mass rear A. bambawalei for a biological control program, it is important to investigate the parasitoid’s host stage preference ...

Parasitoids have long been models for host-parasite interactions, and are important in biological control. Neutral molecular markers have become increasingly accessible tools, revealing previously unknown parasitoid diversity. Thus, insect communities are now seen as more speciose. They have also been found to be more complex, based on trophic links detected using bits of parasitoid DNA in host...

In Pakistan, the cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Sternorrhyncha (Homoptera): Pseudococcidae), is a serious pest of many cultivated plants. A parasitoid, Aenasius bambawalei Hayat (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), is associated with P. solenopsis. In order to mass rear A. bambawalei for a biological control program, it is important to investigate the parasitoid’s host stage preference ...

A mathematical model of the spatio-temporal dynamics of a two host, two parasitoid system is presented. There is a coupling of the four species through parasitism of both hosts by one of the parasitoids. The model comprises a system of four reaction-diffusion equations. The underlying system of ordinary differential equations, modelling the host-parasitoid population dynamics, has a unique posi...

Endoparasitoids have the ability to evade the cellular immune responses of a host and to create an environment suitable for survival of their progeny within a host. Generally, the host immune system is suppressed by endoparasitoids. However, polyembryonic endoparasitoids appear to invade their hosts using molecular mimicry rather than immune system suppression. It is not known how the host immu...

The parasitoid, Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), was introduced for biological control of the stemborer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), in eastern and southern African countries. The parasitoid became firmly established in Ethiopia, with varying density and distribution in various regions of the country indicating that there are factors regulating the s...

Host-parasitoid systems are characterized by a continuous development of new defence strategies in hosts and counter-defence mechanisms in parasitoids. This co-evolutionary arms race makes host-parasitoid systems excellent for understanding trade-offs in host use caused by evolutionary changes in host immune responses and parasitoid virulence. However, knowledge obtained from natural host-paras...

Little is known of the fate of viruses involved in long-term obligatory associations with eukaryotes. For example, many species of parasitoid wasps have symbiotic viruses to manipulate host defenses and to allow development of parasitoid larvae. The complete nucleotide sequence of the DNA enclosed in the virus particles injected by a parasitoid wasp revealed a complex organization, resembling a...

This paper reports for the first time an ichneumonid parasitoid Calliephialtes sittenfeldae Gauld Ugalde-Gómez et Hanson (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) associated with a dipteran host Anastrepha spatulata Stone (Diptera: Tephritidae), recovered from fruit of Schoepfia schreberi (Santalales: Olacaceae) in central Veracruz, Mexico. Large numbers of this parasitoid were collected and reared from its...

Neonicotinoids are widely used insecticides, but their use is subject of debate because of their detrimental effects on pollinators. Little is known about the effect of neonicotinoids on other beneficial insects such as parasitoid wasps, which serve as natural enemies and are crucial for ecosystem functioning. Here we show that sublethal doses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid impair sexual com...