Comparison of Functional Response and Mutual Interference Between Two Aphelinid Parasitoids of Bemisia argentifolii (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae)

Functional responses and mutual interference were compared in an indigenous parasitoid, Encarsia pergandiella Howard (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), with that of an exotic parasitoid, Eretmocerus mundus Mercet (Aphelinidae) from Spain, attacking the silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae). Type II functional response curves were fitted to the data and were used to calculate handling time. Eretmocerus mundus attacked more whitefly nymphs than E. pergandiella. Handling times estimated from the functional responses were 72 min for E. pergandiella and 12 min for E. mundus, suggesting that lower attack rates for the former parasitoid may be attributed to longer handling times. The statistically estimated handling time for E. mundus was compared with an estimate derived from empirical observations of parasitoid behavior. Actual observations of handling time, defined as oviposition, host feeding and associated preening, yielded a mean handling time of <2 min, suggesting that functional response experiments may not produce reliable estimates of handling time. The mutual interference coefficient m of E. mundus was numerically higher than that for E. pergandiella (0.238 vs 0.184, respectively). Although there were no significant differences in m, the comparison raises the interesting question of whether parasitoids with higher attack rates may also have higher levels of mutual interference under conditions of high parasitoid density (e.g., mass rearing).