Natural History and Ecology of Caterpillar Parasitoids

Stireman, John O.; Shaw, Scott Richard

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-86688-4_8

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 217 publications

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“…Our results agree with the conclusions of these studies, suggesting decreases in wasp survival with frequent extreme temperature events. As braconid parasitoids are ubiquitous enemies across Lepidopteran taxa (Stireman & Shaw, 2022), we may expect similar dynamics to appear across other host–parasitoid systems. Widespread release of top‐down control may cascade to important plants (especially crop species), furthering the negative effects of global warming on terrestrial communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The interactive effects of heat stress, parasitism and host plant quality in a host–parasitoid system

Parker,

Kingsolver

2024

Functional Ecology

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Species interactions are expected to change in myriad ways as the frequency and magnitude of extreme temperature events increase with anthropogenic climate change. The relationships between endosymbionts, parasites and their hosts are particularly sensitive to thermal stress, which can have cascading effects on other trophic levels. We investigate the interactive effects of heat stress and parasitism on a terrestrial tritrophic system consisting of two host plants (one common, high‐quality plant and one novel, low‐quality plant), a caterpillar herbivore and a specialist parasitoid wasp. We used a fully factorial experiment to determine the bottom‐up effects of the novel host plant on both the caterpillars' life history traits and the wasps' survival, and the top‐down effects of parasitism and heat shock on caterpillar developmental outcomes and herbivory levels. Host plant identity interacted with thermal stress to affect wasp success, with wasps performing better on the low‐quality host plant under constant temperatures but worse under heat‐shock conditions. Surprisingly, caterpillars consumed less leaf material from the low‐quality host plant to reach the same final mass across developmental outcomes. In parasitized caterpillars, heat shock reduced parasitoid survival and increased both caterpillar final mass and development time on both host plants. These findings highlight the importance of studying community‐level responses to climate change from a holistic and integrative perspective and provide insight into potential substantial interactions between thermal stress and diet quality in plant–insect systems. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The interactive effects of heat stress, parasitism and host plant quality in a host–parasitoid system

Parker,

Kingsolver

2024

Functional Ecology

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“…In respect to the conspicuous, oval shaped patches that are found on Pandora sphinx caterpillars, it is more likely that they could serve as anti‐predatory or anti‐parasitoid function. The idea of an anti‐parasitoid function assumes that potential parasitoids use visual cues when selecting a host, such as the presence of other parasitoids that could serve as competitors (Stireman & Shaw, 2022). Parasitoids, such as Cotesia congregata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a common parasitoid wasp of Pandora sphinx, lay their eggs in caterpillar hosts the larvae exit the host by spinning cream colored oval shaped cocoons attached to the caterpillar's integument (Lampert et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sphingid caterpillars conspicuous patches do not function as distractive marks or warning against predators

Barrone

Vidal

Stevenson

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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To avoid predation by visual predators, caterpillars can be cryptic to decrease detectability or aposematic to warn predators of potential unpalatability. However, for some species, it is not clear if conspicuous patches are selected to avoid predation. For example, Pandora sphinx (Eumorpha pandorus, Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) caterpillars are assumed to be palatable and have both cryptic (green, brown) and conspicuous (orange, red) color morphs. Five lateral, off-white to yellow patches on either side may serve as a warning for predators or to draw attention away from the caterpillar's form to function as distractive marks. We conducted a field study in three temperate fragmented forests in Massachusetts to investigate the potential utility of E. pandorus coloration and conspicuous patches. Using four plasticine caterpillar prey model treatments, green and red with and without lateral conspicuous patches, we tested the effects of color, patch patterning, and seasonality on attack rates by a variety of taxa. We found that 43% of the prey models (n = 964) had bite marks by an array of predators including arthropods (67.5%), birds (18.2%), rodents (11.5%), and large mammals (2.8%). Arthropods as dominant predators align with conclusions from previous studies of prey models placed near ground level. Attack rates peaked for arthropods in late August and early September but were more constant across trials for vertebrates. Arthropods, a heterogeneous group, as indicated by the variety of bite marks, showed significantly higher attack rates on green colored prey models and a tendency of higher attack on solid (non-patch patterned) prey models. Vertebrates, more visually oriented predators, had significantly higher attack rates on red colored prey models and patch patterned prey models. Thus, our results did not suggest that conspicuous patch patterning reduced predation and therefore, we did not find support for the distractive mark hypothesis or warning hypothesis. Further, our study shows clear contrasting interpretations by different predators regarding visual defensive strategies.

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“…In fact, parasitic wasps can cause greater mortality of CEW than W. rufopicta in soybean systems [ 54 ]. However, hymenopteran parasitoids often attack early developmental stages of Lepidoptera and may have been missed by our focus on later instars [ 55 ]. Future research on the CEW mortality and parasitoid success should include a broader range of developmental stages and replication across different local and landscape conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasitism of Corn Earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), by Tachinid Flies in Cultivated Hemp

Falcón-Brindis

Stireman

Viloria

et al. 2022

Insects

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In a survey on hemp grown in western Kentucky we found an average of 27.8 CEW larvae per plant. We recorded 45% parasitism of CEW in these fields by two species of tachinid flies, Winthemia rufopicta and Lespesia aletiae. Most parasitized larvae were third to sixth instars at the time of collection. We found up to 22 tachinid eggs per host larva, 89% of which typically bore between 1 and 5 eggs on the thorax. 45.9% of CEW bearing eggs died. The number of tachinid eggs per host was unrelated to host body mass, but both the number of tachinid eggs and caterpillar body mass influenced CEW survival. Larger CEW often survived parasitism and the number of fly eggs was negatively related to survival rate. The emergence of adult flies was positively correlated with the number of eggs, but no influence of the host size was found. High mortality of CEW larvae and the parasitoids developing within them in this system suggests that secondary chemicals (or poor nutrition) of the hemp diet may be negatively affecting host and parasitoid development and influencing their interactions.

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Natural History and Ecology of Caterpillar Parasitoids

Cited by 6 publications

References 217 publications

The interactive effects of heat stress, parasitism and host plant quality in a host–parasitoid system

The interactive effects of heat stress, parasitism and host plant quality in a host–parasitoid system

Sphingid caterpillars conspicuous patches do not function as distractive marks or warning against predators

Parasitism of Corn Earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), by Tachinid Flies in Cultivated Hemp

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