The reproductive biology of several coexisting polyphagous parasitoids was compared in order to understand the interactions among them in nature. Developmental period, longevity, number of ovarioles and mature eggs per female, emergence rate, and sex ratio were examined as an index of reproductive characters in six pimpline ichneumonid parasitoids, Pimpla nipponica Uchida, P. alboannulata Uchida, P. luctuosa Smith, P. pluto Ashmead, Itoplectis naranyae Ashmead, and I. alternans spectabilis Matsumura. Galleria mellonella (L.), Mamestra brassicae L., and Plodia interpunctella Hübner (Lepidoptera) were used as hosts. Developmental period and longevity of males were significantly shorter than those of females in all the parasitoid species. Both average numbers of ovarioles and mature eggs per female were relatively few in all the parasitoid species. Host acceptance, emergence rate, and sex ratio of parasitoids varied markedly, depending either on the parasitoid species or on the host species. Our results suggest that host utilization differs among the six parasitoid species.
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Ueno et al. (1994) studied this question.
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