Friend or foe? A parasitic wasp shifts the cost/benefit ratio in a nursery pollination system impacting plant fitness.

ABSTRACT: Nursery pollination systems are species interactions where pollinators also act as fruit/seed herbivores of the plant partner. While the plants depend on associated insects for pollination, the insects depend on the plants' reproductive structures for larval development. The outcome of these interactions is thus placed on a gradient between mutualism and antagonism. Less specialized interactions may fluctuate along this gradient with the ecological context, where natural enemies can play an important role. We studied whether a natural enemy may impact the level of seed consumption of a nursery pollinator and how this in turn may influence individual plant fitness. We used the plant Silene latifolia, its herbivore Hadena bicruris, and its ectoparasitoid Bracon variator

SUBMITTER: Villacanas de Castro C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7246216 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature