HOST PREFERENCE OF THE FACULTATIVE HYPERPARASITOID TETRASTICHUS-HOWARDI (HYM, EULOPHIDAE)

Tetrastichus howardi (Olliff) preferred the lepidopteran hosts, Chile partellus (Swinhoe) (Pyralidae) and Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Noc tuidae) to their parasitoids, Xanthopimpla stemmator (Thunberg) (Hymen optera: Ichneumonidae) and Palexorista laxa (Curran) (Diptera: Tachini dae). If T. howardi had previously experienced parasitising a certain host, its preference for that host increased, but not significantly. W hen reared on a certain host, the preference for that host increased. T. howardi showed no preference to any particular age of its hosts. T. howardi was able to discriminate between parasitised and unparasitise d hosts, initially preferring parasitised hosts, but two days later pr eferring unparasitised hosts.