Biotic and abiotic effects on density, body size, sex ratio, and survival in immature stages of the European woodwasp, Sirex noctilio

Abstract

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Demography of an invading forest insect reunited with hosts and parasitoids from its native range

“…This is surprising given the clear link between body size and fecundity (Honěk 1993), although Madden and Coutts (1979) hypothesized that adult size variation is determined by nutrition and the success of the mutualist fungus A. areolatum and other recent studies have supported the hypothesis that highly variable environmental or nutritional factors help determine adult body size (Foelker and Hofstetter 2014;González et al 2014). This is also consistent with recent findings by Garnas et al (2020), where a complex interplay of factors related to resource quality influenced woodwasp body size, even within a single tree. Although P. resinosa produced fewer S. noctilio individuals, they were ~ 23% larger than those produced in P. sylvestris, suggesting that P. resinosa is an attractive host, but may have higher host resistance to S. noctilio.…”