Functional Response of Anisopteromalus calandrae (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae): Influence of Host Numbers Versus Host Density
The functional response of Anisopteromalus calandrae (Howard) was measured on rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), in wheat at 30° C. Four female parasitoids, with males, were allowed to oviposit during their lifespan on 166 to 678 weevils per container. The data were fit by Rogers' (1972) random parasitoid model with rate of parasite search a = 0.32 lifespan−1 and handling time Th= 0.0027 lifespan. Volume of grain, in the range of 0.19 to 3.1 l wheat, had no effect on number of hosts parasitized when host numbers were held constant at 222, 398, and 572 weevils per container. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to consider numbers of hosts present rather than host density when studying functional response within a patch of uniformly distributed hosts.