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Exploitation of Chemical Signaling by Parasitoids: Impact on Host Population Dynamics

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Abstract

Chemical information mediates species interactions in a wide range of organisms. Yet, the effect of chemical information on population dynamics is rarely addressed. We designed a spatio-temporal parasitoid—host model to investigate the population dynamics when both the insect host and the parasitic wasp that attacks it can respond to chemical information. The host species, Drosophila melanogaster, uses food odors and aggregation pheromone to find a suitable resource for reproduction. The larval parasitoid, Leptopilina heterotoma, uses these same odors to find its hosts. We show that when parasitoids can respond to food odors, this negatively affects fruit fly population growth. However, extra parasitoid responsiveness to aggregation pheromone does not affect fruit fly population growth. Our results indicate that the use of the aggregation pheromone by D. melanogaster does not lead to an increased risk of parasitism. Moreover, the use of aggregation pheromone by the host enhances its population growth and enables it to persist at higher parasitoid densities.

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Author notes

  1. Marjolein E. Lof

    Present address: Plant Sciences, Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Crop and Weed Ecology Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700 AK, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biometris, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 100, 6700 AC, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Marjolein E. Lof, Maarten De Gee, Gerrit Gort & Lia Hemerik

  2. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8031, 6700 EH, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Marjolein E. Lof & Marcel Dicke

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  1. Marjolein E. Lof
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Correspondence to Marjolein E. Lof.

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Fig. S3

In all eight figures the x-axis shows the log (base 10) of the total number of fruit fly larvae present in the orchard. The top line of figures represents the fate of the larvae population for the fixed number of parasitoids and the bottom line of figures the same for the fixed fraction of parasitoids. The (a) + (e) figures show percentage mortality due to the Allee effect, the (b) + (f) figures percentage mortality due to competition, the (c) + (g) figures percentage parasitism and the (d) + (h) figures the percentage survival. (PDF 89 kb)

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Lof, M.E., De Gee, M., Dicke, M. et al. Exploitation of Chemical Signaling by Parasitoids: Impact on Host Population Dynamics. J Chem Ecol 39, 752–763 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-013-0298-8

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