Annals of the Entomological Society of America (2002) 95, 695-700

David M. Bennett, Kathleen T. Reynolds, Linda J. Thomson and Ary A. Hoffmann (2002)
Individual level trade-offs and artifacts in the egg parasitoid Trichogramma carverae (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)
Annals of the Entomological Society of America 95 (6), 695-700
Abstract: As is the case with many egg parasitoids, parasitism rates in Trichogramma spp. vary markedly among individuals. Here we test whether this individual variability in Trichogramma carverae (Oatman and Pinto) is associated with trade-offs between early and late reproduction and between early reproduction and life span. We also consider a recently postulated trade-off between an index of pro-ovigeny and life span. Early and late reproduction were positively correlated. To further test for a trade-off, wasps were subdivided into groups depending on their total reproductive output because any correlations among traits might have been masked when wasps produced only a few eggs. This led to correlations between early and late reproductive output becoming negative. However, arbitrary subdivision in this manner is expected to result in artifactual negative correlations, and correlations between early and late reproduction were no longer evident once this confounding factor had been removed. There was no evidence that early reproduction influenced life span; even wasps that failed to parasitize any host eggs had the same mean life span as wasps that reproduced. There was a negative correlation between an index of pro-ovigeny and life span; however, this negative association is likely to be an artifact of the greater opportunity wasps have to parasitize eggs when they are long-lived. Patterns of reproduction and life span therefore appear unconstrained in Trichogramma spp.
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Full text of article
Database assignments for author(s): Ary A. Hoffmann, Linda J. Thomson

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
population dynamics/epizootiology

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Trichogramma carverae (parasitoid)