An experimental study of laboratory populations of the stored-products moth, Cadra cautella (Lepidoptera: Phycitidae) and its larval parasitoid, Venturia canescens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) identified and quantified density- and age-dependent demographic characteristics of the host-parasitoid system. Host imago longevity and fecundity depended on larval weight at pupation. Observed effects of C. cautella larval competition for food on larval mortality, stage duration, and weight at pupation were successfully captured in a mathematical model. Host larval age significantly influenced inter-stage cannibalism and susceptibility to mortality resulting from parasitoid oviposition wounds. Both larval parasitoid developmental rates and adult parasitoid attack rates depended on host larval age. Long-term population experiments of host and host-parasitoid populations revealed that host populations fluctuated with a period slightly in excess of host generation time and that parasitoid populations were in synchrony with host populations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75358 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | Gordon, David M. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Entomology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000573136, proquestno: AAINL38286, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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