Adaptive superparasitism in solitary parasitoids: marking of parasitized hosts in relation to the pay‐off from superparasitism

Abstract

Abstract. The pay‐off from an egg laid in a parasitized host is an important parameter in models on adaptive superparasitism in solitary insect parasitoids. For Leptopilina heterotoma , a parasitoid of larval Drosophila , the pay‐off from a second egg laid in a host is 0.43 offspring when the interval between the two ovipositions is less than 3h. For longer intervals, this pay‐off decreases to almost zero for an interval of 24 h. When a female encountering a parasitized host is able to estimate the interval since the first oviposition, it is expected that she will take this into account in her host selection decisions. This is, however, not in the direct interest of the female that lays the first egg, and marks the host. We studied whether superparasitism in hosts containing a young egg is more common than in hosts containing an older egg, when searching in a patch containing once‐parasitized and unparasitized hosts. The acceptance/encounter ratio of parasitized hosts increased for intervals longer than 6h, as predicted when the interests of the marking female and the longevity of the mark are taken into account. Superparasitism occurred more often when parasitoids had previously searched a host patch 7 days before the experiment compared to when parasitoids had searched a patch 1 day before, a phenomenon predicted by dynamic optimal diet models.