Influence of Food Plant of Host on Attractiveness of the Host to Tachinid Parasites with Notes on Preimaginal Conditioning

Abstract

Host-finding and host selection by entomophagous insects are influenced by the plants on which their hosts feed (Milliron, 1940; Simmonds, 1944). Some species of parasites are attracted to certain plants before they receive any stimuli from the hosts (Cushman 1926; Monteith, 1955). Picard and Rabaud (1914) found that many parasitic Hymenoptera attack larvae of species of different families, and even of different orders, provided that they feed on the same species of food plant.