Ja. Harvey et al., THE EFFECT OF SUPERPARASITISM ON DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOLITARY PARASITOID WASP, VENTURIA-CANESCENS (HYMENOPTERA, ICHNEUMONIDAE), Ecological entomology, 18(3), 1993, pp. 203-208
1. The effects of superparasitism on the rate of development, adult si
ze and mortality of Venturia canescens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) we
re investigated. Parasitoids were reared from third (L3) and fifth (L5
) instars of one of its hosts, Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyr
alidae) containing one, two or four parasitoid eggs. 2. Superparasitis
m increased the development time of Venturia reared from both instars,
but the developmental delay was more evident in wasps from L5 hosts.3
. The size of parasitoids from L3 hosts was unaffected by egg number,
but wasps from both superparasitized L5 treatments were significantly
smaller than those from singly parasitized hosts. 4. Parasitoid mortal
ity was significantly higher in L5 than L3, but within instars did not
differ significantly with egg number. 5. The results confirm that sup
erparasitism may affect the fitness of both the adult female wasp and
her progeny, and should therefore be incorporated into models of super
parasitism as an adaptive foraging strategy.