THE POTENTIAL FOR COEVOLUTION IN A HOST-PARASITOID SYSTEM. I. GENETIC VARIATION WITHIN AN APHID POPULATION IN SUSCEPTIBILITY TO A PARASITIC WASP.

For coevolution to occur, there must be genetic variation in each species for traits relevant to their interaction. Here, statistically significant variation in susceptibility to a parasitic wasp was found among pea-aphid clones collected from a single population. In a subset of clones that was tested further, wasps were found to oviposit in aphids from both resistant and susceptible lines, but eggs failed to develop in resistant hosts. Significant genetic variance in susceptibility provides evidence that this aphid population has the potential to evolve resistance in response to selection by one of its major natural enemies. Predictions of an expected response to selection based on the experimental measures of variation and field parasitism rates suggested that there should be a detectable change in susceptibility over the course of a season. However, an experimental comparison of mean susceptibility of clones collected early and late in the summer, a period of several generations, revealed no response to selection by the wasps. Aphids collected late in the season were as susceptible, on the average, as those collected early in the summer. Possible constraints on the response of the aphids to selection by this natural enemy are considered.