Ecology of natural enemies and genetically engineered host plants

Abstract

Introduction Plants play an important role in the interaction between phytophagous arthropods and the parasitoids, predators, and pathogens that attack them. They provide habitat for both phytophagous arthropods and their natural enemies, and they provide behavioral cues that are important in host/prey location by parasitoids and predators (Vet and Dicke, 1992). Plants also serve as the primary source of food for phytophagous species and, in the case of some parasitoids and predators, as a source of supplemental food. The nutritional quality and phytochemical content of this plant-supplied food is known to affect the vulnerability of phytophagous species to attack by parasitoids, predators, and pathogens, as well their suitability as hosts or prey following attack. The nutritional quality and phytochemical content of plant-supplied food can also affect parasitoids and predators that feed on plant tissues and plant products, such as pollen, nectar, and plant sap. Plant effects on phytophagous arthropods and their natural enemies occur largely at the level of the individual but have consequences at the population level for both pests and their natural enemies. It is these population-level effects, which can be manifested in both ecological time and in evolutionary time, that are most important in the context of crop protection and integrated pest management (IPM).