Abstract
In this study a tritrophic system was evaluated to measure the contributions of the insect host density and its host plant concentration in simple and diversified habitat on the rate of parasitism. The system was composed of the plant Hyptis suaveolens, two species of agromyzid leafminers, and three morphospecies of parasitoids. The parasitism rate, patch size, and habitat complexity were found to be interdependent. If only the habitat complexity or patch size was take into account the differences in parasitism rate are not significant, although habitat diversity seemed to contribute more than the host plant concentration to increase the parasitism rate. The leaves or plants with different number of mines were equally attacked by the parasitoids. The results were representative of what happened to the leafminers at different host plant densities under the homogeneous and heterogeneous habitat condition. This work could help to reinforce the idea of the importance of the plant diversity for enhancing the biological control of the pests by the parasitoids in the managed ecosystems.
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