Parasitoids have long proven to be model organisms in studying resourcerelated constraints on immature development.Here we examine the relationship between host cocoon (=pupal) size in the gregarious endoparasitoid wasp,Cotesia glomerata,and development time and adult size in the solitary idiobiont hyperparasitoid,Pteromalus semotus.Little is known about the biology or ecology of this ecto-hyperparasitoid species,although it is one of the major secondary hyperparasitoids of C.glomerata.The size of the adult wasp covaried with the size of the host cocoon at parasitism.Moreover,female wasps were larger than male wasps for a given cocoon size.Adult wasps have remarkably long life-spans,3 months on average.Longevity did not significantly differ with sex.We also examined how larvae of P.semotus exclude other potential competitors.P.semotus is protandrous,with females taking significantly longer to complete their development than males.In experiments where several eggs of P.semotus were placed on individual pupae of C.glomerata,newly hatched hyperparasitoid larvae moved rapidly over the surface of the host and destroyed the eggs of any conspecifics by biting them before they would initiate feeding on host tissues.Our results are discussed in relation to those with other studies with solitary ichneumonid idiobiont hyperparasitoids of C.glomerata.
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