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Adaptive superparasitism and host-parasitoid dynamics

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Abstract

We consider a host-solitary parasitoid system with three categories of individuals: parasitoids, healthy hosts and parasitized hosts. Parasitoids are assumed to discriminate perfectly between the two kinds of hosts and they can reject those which are already parasitized. If parasitoids systematically accept or reject superparasitism or behave randomly, the system is always unstable. Using an optimal foraging model, we determine the behavior of parasitoids which leads to maximization of the instantaneous reproductive rate. When following this adaptive decision rule, parasitoids accept or refuse superparasitism according to the densities of both healthy and parasitized hosts. We study the dynamics of the system when parasitoids follow the optimal rule and show that under certain conditions it possesses a locally stable equilibrium point. In addition, our model predicts that at equilibrium parasitoids show partial preferences for superparasitism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biométrie, Génétique et Biologie des Populations, URA 2055, Université Lyon I, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne cedex, France

    E. Sirot

  2. Department of Theoretical Biology, Institute of Entomology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 386 01, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    V. Křivan

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  1. E. Sirot
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  2. V. Křivan
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Correspondence to V. Křivan.

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Sirot, E., Křivan, V. Adaptive superparasitism and host-parasitoid dynamics. Bltn Mathcal Biology 59, 23–41 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02459469

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02459469

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