Direct and Indirect Competitive Interactions between and Parasitizing Egg Patches.

The present study investigated egg parasitoid interspecific interactions between a generalist, Ishii (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) and a specialist, Dodd (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) in a laboratory setting using kudzu bug ( Fabricius, (Hemiptera: Plataspidae)) eggs as their shared host. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the emergence of wasps from parasitized hosts after the simultaneous and sequential release of wasps, monitor aggressive behavior of , and quantify intraguild predation of larvae on heterospecific larvae. Results showed that total host egg parasitism was higher when both wasps were released simultaneously than if wasps were released sequentially. produced more total offspring than in all sequential/simultaneous treatments but produced male offspring in most cases. In the aggressive behavioral experiment, specialist, used head butting to fight but no other aggressions were observed. In an experiment examining intraguild predation, was able to develop in host eggs parasitized by four days earlier, acting as a superior larval competitor. These findings shed light on the potential interspecific interactions between and which may determine their relative abundance and influence their compatibility in kudzu bug biological control programs.