Preimaginal developmental time of two egg parasitoids and their host searching efficiency

BARAKAT, MARÍA CANDELA; CINGOLANI, MARÍA FERNANDA; LILJESTHRÖM, GERARDO GUSTAVO

BIOCONTROL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Año: 2020 vol. 30 p. 559 - 568

0958-3157

When searching for hosts, parasitoids may experience competitionbetween adults exploiting the same host (extrinsic), or betweenlarvae developing inside the host (intrinsic competition).Differences in competitive abilities like host location and resourceutilisation promote coexistence. In this sense, extrinsically superiorparasitoids better locate hosts, and intrinsically superior ones canhave a shorter preimaginal development, which gives them acompetitive advantage in physiological suppression against itscompetitor. Piezodorus guildinii (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is animportant soybean pest, and its main natural enemies are eggparasitoids Telenomus podisi and Trissolcus urichi (Hymenoptera:Platygastridae). We compared the ability of wasps to locate hosteggs, and larval development time of both parasitoids. Bothspecies took the same amount of time to find and contact eggs,and to start parasitising them. There were no differences inaverage development time of larvae, pupae, and the entirepreimaginal period. Both parasitoid species compared in thisstudy are closely related, having very similar life history strategies.These factors could have covered up other aspects of the hostforaging abilities of each species, which can make differencesbetween them when searching for hosts in the field. Moreover,searching abilities of both species could be similar underlaboratory conditions but different under field conditions.Understanding competitive interactions between parasitoids isimportant to improve the biological control of the pest.