Ecological Entomology (2008) 33, 608-613

Véronique Martel, Eric Wajnberg and Guy Boivin (2008)
Patch time allocation in male parasitoids
Ecological Entomology 33 (5), 608-613
Abstract: 1. Patch time allocation has been mostly studied in female parasitoids exploiting patches of hosts. Different parameters such as oviposition, host encounters, patch quality, etc. have been repeatedly shown to modify the time females invest on hosts.
2. Male parasitoids are expected to maximise their lifetime fitness by maximising the number of females inseminated during their life. Because they can be sperm and/or time limited, they should optimise their time allocation on emergence patches.
3. Patch time allocation thus appears to be an important question for both male and female parasitoids.
4. In this study, we determined the parameters used by males of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma turkestanica to decide when to leave the emergence patch. Among the different patch-leaving parameters tested, only contacts with parasitised hosts and presence of virgin females significantly influenced the patch-leaving tendency.
5. Our results suggest that males express behaviours that could enable them to optimise their patch exploitation time, as females do, but using different strategies.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Guy Boivin

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

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

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