An Integrative Paradigm for the Dynamics of Monophagous Parasitoid-Host Interactions

Abstract

Although much research on exploiter-victim interactions has concerned predators and their prey, over the past 25 years there has been a flurry of theoretical work involving monophagous insect parasitoids and their herbivorous insect hosts. This is, in part, because such tightly coupled systems are apt to be the most likely to exhibit strong top-down control from the third to the second trophic level. This theory is approaching a crossroad. It is becoming increasingly clear that the community surrounding tightly coupled host-parasitoid interactions cannot be neglected in determining the dynamics of these systems. It is also apparent that spatial scale may be pivotal in the persistence and dynamics of such species couples. In this paper I propose that a general paradigm of the population dynamics of monophagous parasitoid-host associations is emerging, and we are now, more than ever, in a position to investigate it theoretically and experimentally.