Host-limited Dynamics of Autoparasitoids

Autoparasitoids, an important class of intraguild predators used in classical biological control, have a unique biology. Females develop as primary endoparasitoids of scale insects and whiteflies. Males develop at the expense of conspecific or heterospecific parasitoid prepupae. To evaluate the effect of autoparasitism on host suppression, system stability, and parasitoid coexistence, stage-structured differential equation models are developed and analysed. For a host–parasitoid system, autoparasitism stabilizes host–parasitoid oscillations generated by developmental delays of the parasitoid. In host–autoparasitoid–primary parasitoid systems, a distinction between obligate (i.e. parasitoid only attacks conspecifics for the production of males) and facultative (i.e. parasitoid attacks conspecifics and heterospecifics for the production of males) autoparasitism is drawn. Coexistence between an obligate autoparasitoid and primary parasitoid occurs if and only if the autoparasitoid can invade at lower host densities than the primary parasitoid, and the primary parasitoid can suppress the host to a lower equilibrium density than the autoparasitoid. When coexistence occurs, the primary parasitoid determines the host equilibrium abundance. Interactions between facultative autoparasitoids and primary parasitoids can lead to a priority effect, and, less likely, to coexistence. When coexistence occurs, the invasion of the facultative autoparasitoid into the host–primary parasitoid system raises the equilibrium density of the host. In either coexistence scenario, the invasion of an autoparasitoid can stabilize an unstable host–primary parasitoid system. The analysis concludes by showing that the introduction of an autoparasitoid to a host–primary parasitoid system can improve host suppression in the short-term despite possible long-term disruption.