Search results for "extrinsic competition"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Intraguild interactions between two egg parasitoids of a true bug: from laboratory to field investigations
2011
Intraguild interactions can play a role in species coexistence and in sizing and shaping community structures. In addition, understanding how competitive interactions between parasitoid guilds can affect pest suppression may improve biological control. Interspecific competitive effects can be divided in “extrinsic competition”, the indirect interactions between adult females searching for or exploiting hosts, and “intrinsic competition”, the competition that occurs between larvae developing in the same host. In this work we performed both laboratory and field investigations to address on intraguild interactions occurring between Trissolcus basalis (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) and Ooencyrtus t…
Competitive interactions in insect parasitoids: effects of microbial symbionts across tritrophic levels
2023
Competition for hosts is a common ecological interaction in insect parasitoids. In the recent years, it has become increasingly evident that microorganisms can act as ‘hidden players’ in parasitoid ecology. In this review, we propose that parasitoid competition should take into consideration the microbial influence. In particular, we take a tritrophic perspective and discuss how parasitoid competition can be modulated by microorganisms associated with the parasitoids, their herbivore hosts, or the plants attacked by the herbivores. Although research is still in its infancy, recent studies have shown that microbial symbionts can modulate the contest outcome. The emerging pattern is that micr…
Contrasting reproductive traits of competing parasitoids facilitate coexistence on a shared host pest in a biological control perspective
2022
BACKGROUND: Interspecific competition in insect parasitoids is an important ecological phenomenon that has relevant implications for biological pest control. To date, interspecific intrinsic (=larval) competition has been intensively studied, while investigations on extrinsic (=adult) competition have often lagged behind. In this study we examined the role played by parasitoid reproductive traits and host clutch size on the outcome of extrinsic competition between Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) and Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Vassiliev), two egg parasitoids of the pest Nezara viridula (L). Laboratory experiments were conducted by allowing both parasitoid species to exploit an egg mass made of …