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The role of parasitoids in regulation of Polistes wasp population (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae)

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Abstract

The study conducted in 2005–2010 analyzes the behavioral response of the parasitoids Latibulus argiolus (Rossi) (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) and Elasmus schmitti Ruschka (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) to the distribution of their host, Polistes wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Various conditions of the parasitoid-host system and conditions of regulation of the host abundance are discussed. The parasitoid females are more active in wasp colony clusters and tend to infest larger nests. If the parasitoids are abundant, infestation of host colonies starts earlier, sometimes before the worker emergence; therefore, density-dependent behavioral response of parasitoids is caused primarily by the impact of the aggregation component. Thus, the host population density factor appears to be mediated not only by the non-uniform development rates of colonies and their spatial distribution, but also by the seasonal (temporal) aspect of their development. Low density of the host population, at which the parasitoids regulate the wasp abundance, corresponds to a certain phase of the seasonal colony development, namely to the period before the emergence of workers. On the whole, we are dealing with a host-parasitoid system in which the spatial and temporal factors are closely interrelated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kherson State University, Kherson, 73000, Ukraine

    L. Yu. Rusina

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  1. L. Yu. Rusina
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Original Russian Text © L.Yu. Rusina, 2012, published in Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 2012, Vol. 91, No. 4, pp. 691–703.

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Rusina, L.Y. The role of parasitoids in regulation of Polistes wasp population (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae). Entmol. Rev. 93, 271–280 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873813030019

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873813030019

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