Temporal/spatial structure and the dynamical property of laboratory host-parasitoid systems

The effects of spatial structure in terms of local capacity, or the maximum number of larvae surviving competition at resource patches, and temporal structure in terms of the period vulnerable to parasitoid attack in host populations on the persistence of host-parasitoid systems were quantitatively evaluated by laboratory experiments and well-parameterized model analyses. One of two bruchid beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus and C. phaseoli, were used as a host with Heterospilus prosopidis used as the parasitoid. C. maculatus, in which few larvae survive competition to become adults in each bean, and C. phaseoli, in which many larvae become adults in each bean, along with two kinds of beans, the mung and the azuki, were combined to construct four (2x2) resource-herbivorous host-parasitoid systems that differed in local capacity and vulnerable period. The mung-C. maculatus system with the parasitoid was the most persistent, i.e., took the longest time for extinction of either the host or parasitoid to occur. Since this resource-herbivorous host combination exhibited the lowest local capacity and the shortest vulnerable period, these two conditions possibly promoted the persistence of the system. A model incorporating the host population structure supported the observed persistence. Furthermore, the possible contribution of the timing of density-dependent competition of the host on the host-parasitoid persistence is predicted.