Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Introduction
Interactions between species can be direct, for example between predators and prey, or indirect where the effect of one species on another is transmitted by an intermediate species. This book is concerned with indirect effects that are mediated by changes in traits of the intermediate species. In this chapter we review evidence from research on insect host–parasitoid systems for the importance of trait-mediated indirect interactions in determining the dynamics and structure of insect food webs.
Parasitoids, like parasites, require a host organism for much of their development but unlike parasites they need to kill their host to complete development to the free-living adult stage. The parasitoid lifestyle has evolved in a number of insect groups, including the Diptera and the Coleoptera, but has reached its greatest diversity in the Hymenoptera, comprising probably over a million species (Quicke 1997). Their hosts are other arthropods, mainly insects but also spiders, for example. Parasitoid wasps have been popular subjects for biological research, in part because of their abundance and diversity which indicates their ecological significance and utility for biological control, but also because of their lifestyle which makes many aspects of their ecology and behaviour easier to study than those of predators.
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