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Spatial ecology of host–parasitoid interactions: a threatened butterfly and its specialised parasitoid

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Abstract

Habitat conservation for threatened temperate insect species is often guided by one of two paradigms: a metapopulation approach focusing on patch area, isolation and number; or a habitat approach focusing on maintaining high quality habitat for the focal species. Recent research has identified the additive and interacting importance of both approaches for maintaining populations of threatened butterflies. For specialised host-parasitoid interactions, understanding the consequences of habitat characteristics for the interacting species is important, because (1) specialised parasitoids are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of fragmentation, and (2) altered interaction frequencies resulting from changes to habitat management or the spatial configuration of habitat are likely to have consequences for host dynamics. The spatial ecology of Cotesia bignellii, a specialist parasitoid of the threatened butterfly Euphydryas aurinia, was investigated at two spatial scales: within habitat patches (at the scale of individual aggregations of larvae, or ‘webs’) and among habitat patches (the scale of local populations). Parasitism rates were investigated in relation to larval web size, vegetation sward height and host density. Within patches, the probability of a larval webs being parasitized increased significantly with increasing number of larvae in the web, and parasitism rates increased significantly with increasing web isolation. The proportion of webs parasitized was significantly and negatively correlated with cluster density. Among habitat patches the proportion of parasitized webs decreased as cluster density increased. Clusters with a high proportion of larval webs parasitized tended to have lower parasitism rates per larval web. These results support the call for relatively large and continuous habitat patches to maintain stable parasitoid and host populations. Conservation efforts directed towards maintenance of high host plant density could allow E. aurinia to reduce parasitism risk, while providing C. bignellii with sufficient larval webs to allow population persistence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Adrian Fowles, Mark Shaw and Richard Smith for their help and advice. We thank Emma Trainor at the Countryside Council for Wales in Swansea with help obtaining site ownership. Last, we extent our thanks to the private landowners for permitting access to their land, the national trust for allowing us to work on Welsh Moor and The Gower Commoners Association for allowing us to work on their commons. Funding for this work was provided by The Countryside Council for Wales under Contract Number FC 73-01-515. CWW also granted permission to collect E. aurinia larvae.

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  1. Maartje J. Klapwijk

    Present address: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 75007, Uppsala, Sweden

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK

    Maartje J. Klapwijk & Owen T. Lewis

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Correspondence to Maartje J. Klapwijk.

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Klapwijk, M.J., Lewis, O.T. Spatial ecology of host–parasitoid interactions: a threatened butterfly and its specialised parasitoid. J Insect Conserv 18, 437–445 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9653-5

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