The effect of variability on host feeding and reproductive success in parasitoids |
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| Authors: | A I Houston J M McNamara H C J Godfray |
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| Institution: | (1) NERC Unit of Behavioural Ecology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3PS Oxford, U.K.;(2) School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, University Walk, BS8 1TW Bristol, U.K.;(3) Department of Biology and NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, SL5 7PY Ascot, Berks, U.K. |
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| Abstract: | We model the behaviour of a solitary parasitoid that can either eat a host or lay an egg on it. When the parasitoid does not
die as a result of starvation, it should always lay an egg on a host. We compute the parasitoid's lifetime reproductive success
in this case, and illustrate the effects of the mean time to find hosts and the variance in this time. We then develop a state-dependent
model in which the decision to eat the host or lay an egg on it depend on the parasitoid's state. This model is used to explore
the effects of variability in the time to find hosts on the parasitoid's lifetime reproductive success. It is shown that there
can be a non-monotonic relationship between reproductive success and variability. |
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