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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on February 27, 2008
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arn011
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Review

Foraging behavior of egg parasitoids exploiting chemical information

Nina E. Fatourosa, Marcel Dickea, Roland Mumma, Torsten Meinersb and Monika Hilkerb

a Laboratory of Entomology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Binnenhaven 7, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands b Applied Zoology/Animal Ecology, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Strasse 9, 12163 Berlin, Germany

Address correspondence to N.E. Fatouros. E-mail: nina.fatouros{at}wur.nl.


  Abstract

Female parasitic wasps seek hosts for their offspring often in a dynamic environment. Foraging egg parasitoids rely on a variety of chemical cues originating from the adult host, host products, or the host plant rather than from the attacked host stage—the insect egg itself. Besides pupae, insect eggs are the most inconspicuous host stage attacked by parasitic wasps. To overcome the problem of low detectability of host eggs, egg parasitoids have evolved several strategies such as exploiting long-range kairomones of the adult hosts, for example, host aggregation and sex pheromones, plant synomones induced by egg deposition or host feeding, or short-range contact cues derived from the adult host or the host plant. Moreover, egg parasitoids have evolved the ability to use chemical espionage in combination with hitchhiking on the adult host (phoresy) to compensate their limited flight capability and to gain access to freshly laid host eggs. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview on the variety of host-foraging strategies of egg parasitoids exploiting chemical signals. Furthermore, the use of such infochemicals is discussed with respect to the wasps’ dietary breadth and their ability to learn.

Key words: egg parasitoids, host-foraging behavior, infochemicals, kairomones, phoresy, plant synomones, sex pheromones.

Received 22 August 2007; revised 3 January 2008; accepted 7 January 2008.


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