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A network approach reveals parasitoid wasps to be generalized nectar foragers

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Abstract

Despite many efforts to sustain parasitoid populations in agroecosystems to help control pests, relatively little is known about parasitoid-flower interactions and how dependent each partner is on the other. There are few comprehensive, species-specific, community-level observations of parasitoid-flower interactions. Observing flower visitation by parasitoid species is challenging because most parasitoids are small and visit flowers infrequently. Further, the extreme diversity of parasitoids poses challenges for identification, and only a few experts can identify parasitoids to species. To explore the potential for a flower-visitor network approach to improve our understanding of parasitoid foraging ecology, we utilized published and publicly available flower-visitor datasets from the Interaction Web Database. Parasitoid species were present in almost half of the flower-visitor datasets in the Interaction Web Database but constituted a very small proportion of all flower visiting species. We analyzed the only parasitoid-flower subnetwork that was both speciose and documented heterogeneity in the number of flowering plant species visited by parasitoids. On average, parasitoids were more generalized in flower visitation than predicted under null expectations, given their prevalence in the network. Further, many individual flower and parasitoid species might be more generalized than they appeared as evidenced by a specialization metric less biased by sampling effects. These plant and parasitoid species might therefore be more useful for conservation biological control efforts than initially expected. Finally, the nested structure of the network indicates the potential for a subset of the flower community to support generalized, and any potential specialized, parasitoid nectar foragers in the field.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jay Rosenheim, Marshall McMunn, Moria Robinson, Eric LoPresti, and Michael Culshaw-Mauer for helpful feedback on the manuscript, as well as Nicholas Fabina, Jochen Fründ, and Neal Williams for feedback on networks metrics. Reviews from Joe Patt and two anonymous reviewers greatly improved the manuscript. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1148897 and Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant No. DEB-1501620. LR was supported by a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (FOMN 705287) and NSF #DMS-1313115. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the USDA. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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  1. Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Ash T. Zemenick

  2. Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, c/o National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA

    Robert R. Kula

  3. Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Laura Russo

  4. Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    John Tooker

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  1. Ash T. Zemenick
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Correspondence to Ash T. Zemenick.

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Zemenick, A.T., Kula, R.R., Russo, L. et al. A network approach reveals parasitoid wasps to be generalized nectar foragers. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 13, 239–251 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-018-9642-9

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