Habitat Considerations for Parasitic Wasps (Hymenoptera) |
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Authors: | Mark R Shaw |
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Institution: | (1) Honorary Research Associate National Museums of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF, UK |
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Abstract: | Parasitic wasps operate at a high trophic level and, because of their biology, tend to be highly specialised, sometimes having
very narrow host ranges with at least local monophagy a frequent outcome. These features, in addition to our poor state of
autecological knowledge, render them particularly vulnerable in conservation terms and suggest that their habitat needs should
be analysed differently from those of most other insects. The basic life history of parasitic wasps and some of the ways in
which they interact with host populations and in communities are outlined. Then, against a background of very limited autecological
data, and therefore somewhat speculatively, habitat parameters that seem likely to be of importance to parasitoids are discussed,
largely by reference to the host relations and ecology of ichneumonoid parasitoids of Lepidoptera in N. W. Europe. Some considerations
of environmental change are included. |
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Keywords: | Environmental change Host relations Ichneumonoidea Life history Parasitoids |
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