Skip to main content
Log in

Parasitism rate, parasitoid community composition and host specificity on exposed and semi-concealed caterpillars from a tropical rainforest

  • Community ecology - Original research
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The processes maintaining the enormous diversity of herbivore—parasitoid food webs depend on parasitism rate and parasitoid host specificity. The two parameters have to be evaluated in concert to make conclusions about the importance of parasitoids as natural enemies and guide biological control. We document parasitism rate and host specificity in a highly diverse caterpillar-parasitoid food web encompassing 266 species of lepidopteran hosts and 172 species of hymenopteran or dipteran parasitoids from a lowland tropical forest in Papua New Guinea. We found that semi-concealed hosts (leaf rollers and leaf tiers) represented 84 % of all caterpillars, suffered a higher parasitism rate than exposed caterpillars (12 vs. 5 %) and their parasitoids were also more host specific. Semi-concealed hosts may therefore be generally more amenable to biological control by parasitoids than exposed ones. Parasitoid host specificity was highest in Braconidae, lower in Diptera: Tachinidae, and, unexpectedly, the lowest in Ichneumonidae. This result challenges the long-standing view of low host specificity in caterpillar-attacking Tachinidae and suggests higher suitability of Braconidae and lower suitability of Ichneumonidae for biological control of caterpillars. Semi-concealed hosts and their parasitoids are the largest, yet understudied component of caterpillar—parasitoid food webs. However, they still remain much closer in parasitism patterns to exposed hosts than to what literature reports on fully concealed leaf miners. Specifically, semi-concealed hosts keep an equally low share of idiobionts (2 %) as exposed caterpillars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • APG III (2009) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Bot J Linn Soc 161:105–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Askew RR, Shaw MR (1979) Mortality factors affecting the leaf-mining stages of Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) on oak and birch. 2. Biology of the parasite species. Zool J Linn Soc 67:51–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Askew RR, Shaw MR (1986) Parasitoid communities: their size, structure and development. In: Waage J, Greathead D (eds) Insect Parasitoids. 13th Symposium of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Academic Press, London, pp 225–263

  • Barbosa P, Caldas A (2004) Patterns of parasitoid-host associations in differentially parasitized macrolepidopteran assemblages on black willow Salix nigra (Marsh) and box elder Acer negundo L. Basic Appl Ecol 5:75–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbosa P, Tammaru T, Caldas A (2004) Is parasitism of numerically dominant species in macro lepidopteran assemblages independent of their abundance? Basic Appl Ecol 5:357–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belshaw R (1994) Life history characteristics of Tachinidae (Diptera) and their effects on polyphagy. In: Hawkins BA, Sheehan W (eds) Parasitoid community ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 145–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Belshaw R, Fitton M, Herniou E, Gimeno C, Quicke DLJ (1998) A phylogenetic reconstruction of the Ichneumonoidea (Hymenoptera) based on the D2 variable region of 28S ribosomal RNA. Syst Entomol 23:109–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connahs H, Aiello A, Van Bael S, Rodriguez-Castaneda G (2011) Caterpillar abundance and parasitism in a seasonally dry versus wet tropical forest of Panama. J Trop Ecol 27:51–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornell HV, Hawkins BA (1995) Survival patterns and mortality sources of herbivorous insects—some demographic trends. Am Nat 145:563–593

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craft KJ, et al. (2010) Population genetics of ecological communities with DNA barcodes: An example from New Guinea Lepidoptera. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:5041–5046

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Diniz IR, Morais HC (1997) Lepidopteran ceterpillar fauna of cerrado host plants. Biodivers Conserv 6:817–836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eggleton P, Gaston KJ (1990) Parasitoid species and assemblages—convenient definitions or misleading compromises. Oikos 59:417–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eggleton P, Gaston KJ (1992) Tachinid host ranges: a reappraisal (Diptera: Tachinidae). Entomol Gaz 43:139–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauld ID (1984) An introduction to the Ichneumonidae of Australia; with a contribution on Metopiinae by M.G. Fitton. BM(NH), London

  • Gauld ID (1988) Evolutionary patterns of host utilization by ichneumonoid parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae and Braconidae). Biol J Linn Soc 35:351–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauld I, Bolton B (1996) The Hymenoptera. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentry GL, Dyer LA (2002) On the conditional nature of Neotropical caterpillar defenses against their natural enemies. Ecology 83:3108–3119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson GAP, Huber JT, Woolley JB (eds) (1997) Annotated keys to the genera of Nearctic Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). NRC, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfray HCJ (1994) Parasitoids: behavioral and evolutionary ecology. Princeton University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfray HCJ, Lewis OT, Memmott J (1999) Studying insect diversity in the tropics. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci 354:1811–1824

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Goulet H, Huber JT (eds) (1993) Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. Research branch, Agriculture Canada

    Google Scholar 

  • Greathead DJ (1987) Parasitoids in classical biological control. In: Waage JK, Greathead D (eds) Insect parasitoids. Academic Press, London, pp 289–318

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton AJ, et al. (2010) Quantifying uncertainty in estimation of tropical arthropod species richness. Am Nat 176:90–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson PE, Gauld ID (eds) (1995) The Hymenoptera of Costa Rica. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins BA (1994) Pattern and process in host-parasitoid interactions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins BA, Cornell HV, Hochberg ME (1997) Predators, parasitoids, and pathogens as mortality agents in phytophagous insect populations. Ecology 78:2145–2152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hespenheide HA (1991) Bionomics of leaf-mining insects. Annu Rev Entomol 36:535–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway JD, Kibby G, Peggie D (2001) The families of malesian moths and butterflies. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrcek J, Miller SE, Quicke DLJ, Smith MA (2011) Molecular detection of trophic links in a complex insect host-parasitoid food web. Mol Ecol Resour 11:786–794

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH (1995) The caterpillars and their parasitoids of a tropical dry forest. Tachinid Time 8:1–3

    Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH, Gauld ID (1997) Patterns of use of large moth caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae and Sphingidae) by ichneumonid parasitoids (Hymenoptera) in Costa Rican dry forest. In: Watt AD, Stork NE, Hunter MD (eds) Forests and insects. Chapman & Hall, London, pp 251–271

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaartinen R, Stone GN, Hearn J, Lohse K, Roslin T (2010) Revealing secret liaisons: DNA barcoding changes our understanding of food webs. Ecol Entomol 35:623–638

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kidd NAC, Jervis MA (2005) Population dynamics. In: Jervis MA (ed) Insects as natural enemies: a practical perspective. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 435–523

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Le Corff J, Marquis RJ (1999) Differences between understorey and canopy in herbivore community composition and leaf quality for two oak species in Missouri. Ecol Entomol 24:46–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Corff J, Marquis RJ, Whitfield JB (2000) Temporal and spatial variation in a parasitoid community associated with the herbivores that feed on Missouri Quercus. Environ Entomol 29:181–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leps J, Novotny V, Basset Y (2001) Habitat and successional status of plants in relation to the communities of their leaf-chewing herbivores in Papua New Guinea. J Ecol 89:186–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis OT, Memmott J, Lasalle J, Lyal CHC, Whitefoord C, Godfray HCJ (2002) Structure of a diverse tropical forest insect-parasitoid community. J Anim Ecol 71:855–873

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lill JT, Marquis RJ, Ricklefs RE (2002) Host plants influence parasitism of forest caterpillars. Nature 417:170–173

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McAlpine JR, Keig R, Falls R (1983) Climate of Papua New Guinea. CSIRO and Australian National University Press, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • Memmott J, Godfray HCJ, Gauld ID (1994) The structure of a tropical host parasitoid community. J Anim Ecol 63:521–540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller SE, Novotny V, Basset Y (2003) Studies on New Guinea moths. I. Introduction (Lepidoptera). Proc Entomol Soc Wash 105:1034–1042

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills NJ (1992) Parasitoid guilds, life-styles, and host ranges in the parasitoid complexes of tortricoid hosts (Lepidoptera, Tortricoidea). Environ Entomol 21:230–239

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills NJ (1993) Species richness and structure in the parasitoid complexes of tortricoid hosts. J Anim Ecol 62:45–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris RJ, Lewis OT, Godfray HCJ (2004) Experimental evidence for apparent competition in a tropical forest food web. Nature 428:310–313

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Murakami M, Yoshida K, Hara H, Toda MJ (2005) Spatio-temporal variation in Lepidopteran larval assemblages associated with oak, Quercus crispula: the importance of leaf quality. Ecol Entomol 30:521–531

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murakami M, Hirao T, Ichie T (2007) Comparison of lepidopteran larval communities among tree species in a temperate deciduous forest, Japan. Ecol Entomol 32:613–620

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novotny V, et al. (2002) Predictably simple: assemblages of caterpillars (Lepidoptera) feeding on rainforest trees in Papua New Guinea. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 269:2337–2344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novotny V, et al. (2006) Why are there so many species of herbivorous insects in tropical rainforests? Science 313:1115–1118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Novotny V, et al. (2007) Low beta diversity of herbivorous insects in tropical forests. Nature 448:692–695

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Novotny V, et al. (2010) Guild-specific patterns of species richness and host specialization in plant-herbivore food webs from a tropical forest. J Anim Ecol 79:1193–1203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polis GA, Myers CA, Holt RD (1989) The ecology and evolution of intraguild predation - potential competitors that eat each other. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 20:297–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price PW (2002) Resource-driven terrestrial interaction webs. Ecol Res 17:241–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quicke DLJ (1997) Parasitic Wasps. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Quicke DLJ, Laurenne NM, Fitton MG, Broad GR (2009) A thousand and one wasps: a 28S rDNA and morphological phylogeny of the Ichneumonidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) with an investigation into alignment parameter space and elision. J Nat Hist 43:1305–1421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quicke DLJ, Smith MA, Miller SE, Hrcek J, Butcher B (2012) Colastomion Baker (Braconidae, Rogadinae): nine new species from Papua New Guinea reared from Crambidae. J Hymenoptera Res 28:85–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salvo A, Valladares GR, Cagnolo L (2011) Parasitic assemblages on leafminers: a comparison of structure and function among host orders. Stud Neotrop Fauna Environ 46:11–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw MR (1994) Parasitoid host ranges. In: Hawkins BA, Sheehan W (eds) Parasitoid community ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 111–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheehan W (1991) Host range patterns of hymenopteran parasitoids of exophytic lepidopteran folivores. In: Bernays EA (ed) Insect-plant interactions, vol 3. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 209–248

  • Sheehan W (1994) Parasitoid community structure: effects of host abundance, phylogeny, and ecology. In: Hawkins BA, Sheehan W (eds) Parasitoid community ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 90–107

  • Smith MA, Woodley NE, Janzen DH, Hallwachs W, Hebert PDN (2006) DNA barcodes reveal cryptic host-specificity within the presumed polyphagous members of a genus of parasitoid flies (Diptera: Tachinidae). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:3657–3662

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith MA, Wood DM, Janzen DH, Hallwachs W, Hebert PDN (2007) DNA barcodes affirm that 16 species of apparently generalist tropical parasitoid flies (Diptera, Tachinidae) are not all generalists. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:4967–4972

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith MA, et al. (2008) Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology and collections. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:12359–12364

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith MA, Eveleigh ES, McCann KS, Merilo MT, McCarthy PC, Van Rooyen KI (2011) Barcoding a quantified food web: crypsis, concepts, ecology and hypotheses. PLoS ONE 6:e14424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stireman JO, Singer MS (2003) Determinants of parasitoid-host associations: insights from a natural tachinid-lepidopteran community. Ecology 84:296–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stireman JO, et al. (2005) Climatic unpredictability and parasitism of caterpillars: implications of global warming. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:17384–17387

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tachi T, Shima H (2010) Molecular phylogeny of the subfamily Exoristinae (Diptera, Tachinidae), with discussions on the evolutionary history of female oviposition strategy. Syst Entomol 35:148–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tvardikova K, Novotny V (2012) Predation on exposed and leaf-rolling artificial caterpillars in tropical forests of Papua New Guinea. J Trop Ecol 28:331–341. doi:310.1017/S0266467412000235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Driesche RG (1983) The meaning of percent parasitism in studies of insect parasitoids. Environ Entomol 12:1611–1622

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitfield JB (1994) Mutualistic viruses and the evolution of host ranges in endoparasitoid Hymenoptera. In: Hawkins BA, Sheehan W (eds) Parasitoid community ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 111–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitfield JB (2003) Phylogenetic insights into the evolution of parasitism in Hymenoptera. Adv Parasitol 54:69–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitfield JB, O’Connor JM (2011) Molecular systematics of wasp and polydnavirus genomes and their coevolution. In: Beckage NE, Drezen J-M (eds) Parasitoid viruses. Academic Press, pp 89–97

  • Whitfield JB, Wagner DL (1988) Patterns in host ranges within the Nearctic species of the parasitoid genus Pholetesor Mason (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). Environ Entomol 17:608–615

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the New Guinea Binatang Research Center parataxonomists, village assistants, Lauren Helgen, Karolyn Darrow and Kristyna Hrckova for technical assistance and general support. Host plants were identified by George D. Weiblen. Lepidopteran taxonomy was assisted by Jeremy Holloway, Jadranka Rota, Michael Shaffer, Tosio Kumata, Issei Ohshima, and others acknowledged in Craft et al. (2010). Parasitoids were identified by: Kees van Achterberg (Macrocentrinae), Celso Oliveira Azevedo (Bethylidae), Yves Braet (Orgilinae), Michael W. Gates (Chalcidoidea), Ian D. Gauld (Ichneumonidae), Donald L. J. Quicke (Rogadinae and Hormiinae), Michael J. Sharkey (Agathidinae), David Wahl (Ichneumonidae), and Dicky Yu (Cheloninae). This paper is based on work supported by the US National Science Foundation (DEB 0841885), the Czech Science Foundation (206/09/0115 and 13-10486S), the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IAA600960712), the Czech Ministry of Education (LH11008 and MSM6007665801), and the project CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0064 co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic. The Papua New Guinea caterpillar rearing campaign has been funded by NSF since 1995 in collaboration with George Weiblen and Yves Basset. We thank Paul Hebert, Alex Smith and the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario for the DNA barcodes. Laboratory reagents and BOLD infrastructure were funded by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute. We also thank David Wahl, Tom Fayle, Kees van Achterberg, Becky Morris, Owen Lewis, David Storch and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Hrcek.

Additional information

Communicated by Jason Tylianakis.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 1163 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hrcek, J., Miller, S.E., Whitfield, J.B. et al. Parasitism rate, parasitoid community composition and host specificity on exposed and semi-concealed caterpillars from a tropical rainforest. Oecologia 173, 521–532 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2619-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2619-6

Keywords

Navigation