Innate Host Habitat Preference in the Parasitoid Diachasmimorpha longicaudata: Functional Significance and Modifications through Learning.

ABSTRACT: Parasitoids searching for polyphagous herbivores can find their hosts in a variety of habitats. Under this scenario, chemical cues from the host habitat (not related to the host) represent poor indicators of host location. Hence, it is unlikely that naïve females show a strong response to host habitat cues, which would become important only if the parasitoids learn to associate such cues to the host presence. This concept does not consider that habitats can vary in profitability or host nutritional quality, which according to the optimal foraging theory and the preference-performance hypothesis (respectively) could shape the way in which parasitoids make use of chemical cues from the host habitat. We assessed innate preference in the fruit fly parasitoid Diachasmimorpha longicaudata among

SUBMITTER: Segura DF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4805301 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature