Abstract
Developmental interactions between the solitary koinobiont endoparasitoid Venturia canescens, and two of its hosts, the pyralid moths Plodia interpunctella and Corcyra cephalonica, were investigated. Wasps reared from second (L2) through fifth (L5) instars of Corcyra were larger than those from the corresponding stages of Plodia, but took longer to complete development and generally suffered higher mortality. Starved L5 Plodia of a given mass produced significantly larger wasps than starved L5 Corcyra. Adult wasp size was positively correlated with the number of ovulated eggs in Venturia emerging from both hosts; thus, the larger wasps that emerged from Corcyra had higher egg complements than the smaller wasps from Plodia. The final size of parasitized L2-L4 Corcyra was influenced by Venturia, with all three instars significantly smaller than unparasitized larvae. For Venturia, developmental flexibility and host regulation are important adaptive mechanisms that allow the parasitoid to develop in a wide range of host instars. However, for koinobiont parasitoids differences in the biology of the host species strongly influence their development and fitness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 427-435 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | European Journal of Entomology |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 1995 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- ICHNEUMONIDAE
- VENTURIA CANESCENS
- KOINOBIONT
- PARASITOID
- DEVELOPMENT
- PYRALIDAE
- CORCYRA CEPHALONICA
- PLODIA INTERPUNCTELLA