Insect-plant food webs could provide new clues for Pest Management

G R, VALLADARES; SALVO A,

ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Año: 1999 vol. 28 p. 539 - 544

0046-225X

Food webs describe feeding interactions in a community. Parasitoid food webs concentrate on such interactions among plants, phytophagous insects, and their parasitoids. Their study has not yet been applied to agricultural systems, despite the widespread use of parasitoids in insect pest management programs. In this paper, parasitoid food webs from a native and cultivated habitat in the same region are compared, focusing on aspects relevant to pest management and seeking to elicit further interest in this type of studies. The study system involves Agromyzid leaf miners, their plant hosts and parasitoids, from Córdoba (Central Argentina). The authors contend that inspection of the webs suggest interesting possibilities for detecting useful parasitoids and plant-alternative host-parasitoid interactions.