Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:59:37.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of plant availability on population size and dynamics of an insect community: diamondback moth and two of its parasitoids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2014

M. Soufbaf ,
Y. Fathipour ,
J. Karimzadeh  and
M.P. Zalucki
M. Soufbaf
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O.Box 14115-336, Tehran, Iran
Y. Fathipour*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O.Box 14115-336, Tehran, Iran
J. Karimzadeh
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Protection, Isfahan Research Centre for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Isfahan, Iran
M.P. Zalucki
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence Phone: +98 21 48292301 Fax: +98 21 48292200 E-mail: fathi@modares.ac.ir
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To understand the effect of plant availability/structure on the population size and dynamics of insects, a specialist herbivore in the presence of two of its parasitoids was studied in four replicated time-series experiments with high and low plant availabilities; under the latter condition, the herbivore suffered from some periods of resource limitation (starvation) and little plant-related structural refuges. Population dynamics of the parasitoid Cotesia vestalis was governed mainly by the delayed density-dependent process under both plant setups. The parasitoid, Diadegma semiclausum, under different plant availabilities and different coexistence situations (either +competitor or –competitor) showed dynamics patterns that were governed mainly by the delayed density process (significant lags at weeks 2–4). Both the competing parasitoids did not experience beneficial or costly interferences from each other in terms of their own population size when the plant resource was limited. Variation in the Plutella xylostella population under limited plant availability is higher than that under the other plant setup. For both parasitoids, under limited plant setup, the extinction risk was lower when parasitoids were engaged in competition, while under the unlimited plant setup, the mentioned risk was higher when parasitoids competed. In this situation, parasitoids suffered from two forces, competition and higher escaped hosts.

Keywords

Plutella xylostellacommunity structureparasitoid competitionplant structure
Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 104 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 418 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amarasekare, P. (2002) Interference competition and species coexistence. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 269, 2541–2550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andow, D.A. & Prokrym, D.R. (1990) Plant structural complexity and host-finding by a parasitoid. Oecologia 82, 162–165.Google Scholar
Begon, M., Sait, S.M. & Thompson, D.J. (1995) Persistence of a parasitoid-host system: refuges and generation cycles? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 260, 131–137.Google Scholar
Bonsall, M.B. & Hassell, M.P. (1998) Population dynamics of apparent competition in a host–parasitoid assemblage. Animal Ecology 67, 918–929.Google Scholar
Box, G.E.P. & Cox, D.R. (1964) An analysis of transformations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B 26, 211–252.Google Scholar
Box, G.E.P., Jenkins, G.M. & Reinsel, G.C. (1994) Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Cassinari, M.P., Groppi, M. & Tebaldi, C. (2007) Effects of predation efficiencies on the dynamics of a tritrophic food chain. Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering 4, 431–456.Google Scholar
Dobson, A.P. & Crawley, M. (1994) Pathogens and the structure of plant communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9, 393–398.Google Scholar
Gingras, D., Dutilleul, P. & Boivin, G. (2003) Effect of plant structure on host finding capacity of lepidopterous pests of crucifers by two Trichogramma parasitoids. Biological Control 27, 25–31.Google Scholar
Huffaker, C.B. (1958) Experimental studies on predation: dispersion factors and predator–prey oscillations. Hilgardia 27, 343–383.Google Scholar
Karimzadeh, J., Bonsall, M.B. & Wright, D.J. (2004) Bottom-up and top-down effects in a tritrophic system: the population dynamics of Plutella xylostella (L.)–Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov) on different host plants. Ecological Entomology 29, 285–293.Google Scholar
Lotka, A.J. (1925) Elements of Physical Biology. Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Minitab (2007) Minitab User's Guide. Version 15. UK, Minitab Ltd.Google Scholar
Naji, R.K. & Balasim, A. T. (2007) Dynamical behavior of a three species food chain model with Beddington–DeAngelis functional response. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 32, 1853–1866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paine, R.T. (1992) Food-web analysis through field measurement of per capita interaction strength. Nature 355, 73–75.Google Scholar
Rehman, A. & Powell, W. (2010) Host selection behaviour of aphid parasitoids (Aphidiidae: Hymenoptera). Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science 2, 299–311.Google Scholar
SAS (2003) SAS Statistics and Graphics Guide, Release 9.1. Cary, NC, SAS Institute.Google Scholar
Shi, Z.H., Li, Q.B. & Li, X. (2004) Interspecific competition between Diadegma semiclausum Hellen (Hym., Ichneumonidae) and Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov) (Hym., Braconidae) in parasitizing Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lep., Plutellidea). Journal of Applied Entomology 128, 437–444.Google Scholar
Soufbaf, M., Fathipour, Y., Karimzadeh, J. & Zalucki, M.P. (2010 a) Bottom-up effect of different host plants on Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae): a life-table study on canola. Journal of Economic Entomology 103, 2019–2027.Google Scholar
Soufbaf, M., Fathipour, Y., Karimzadeh, J. & Zalucki, M.P. (2010 b) Development and age-specific mortality of diamondback moth on Brassica host plants: pattern and causes of mortality under laboratory conditions. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 103, 574–579.Google Scholar
Turchin, P. & Taylor, A.D. (1992) Complex dynamics in ecological time series. Ecology 73, 289–305.Google Scholar
Utida, S. (1967) Damped oscillation of population density at equilibrium. Researches on Population Ecology 9, 1–9.Google Scholar
Wang, X.G. & Keller, M.A. (2002) A comparison of the host-searching efficiency of two larval parasitoids of Plutella xylostella . Ecological Entomology 27, 105–114.Google Scholar