Parasitoid Strategies and Community Organization

Abstract

The hypothesis that parasitoid complexes develop in relation to plant succession is supported. Early colonizers have high fecundity and low competitive ability (r strategists) and later colonizers have low fecundity and high competitive ability (K strategists), and species diversity in the complex tends to increase as succession proceeds. These trends are evident also in a succession of increasing host densities from year to year and in decreasing host abundance within each host generation.