In nature, resources necessary for reproduction and survival are often spatially distributed or scarce. Parasitoid wasps are insects that develop as larvae in or on a single invertebrate resource (often another insect), while the adults are free-living and rely on carbohydrates, for example, floral nectar, …

Unraveling the numerous factors that drive phenotypic variation in trait expression among animals has long presented a significant challenge. Whereas traits like growth and adult size are often heritable and are passed on from one generation to the next, these can be significantly affected by the quality …

Parasitoids lay their eggs in or on a host, usually another insect. During foraging, parasitoids can encounter insects that differ in terms of host suitability and quality. At one extreme end of this spectrum are non-hosts that are unsuitable for offspring development.Non-hosts are generally ignored …

Hyperparasitoids are some of the most diverse members of insect food webs. True hyperparasitoids parasitize the larvae of other parasitoids, reaching these larvae with their ovipositor through the herbivore that hosts the parasitoid larva. During pupation, primary parasitoids also may be attacked by …

Animals can alter their foraging behavior through associative learning, where an encounter with an essential resource (e.g., food or a reproductive opportunity) is associated with nearby environmental cues (e.g., volatiles). This can subsequently improve the animal’s foraging efficiency. However, when …

1. Dynamic conditions in nature have led to the evolution of behavioural traits that allow animals to use information on local circumstances and adjust their behaviour accordingly, for example through learning. Although learning can improve foraging efficiency, the learned information can become unreliable …

Many species of parasitoid wasps use plant volatiles to locate their herbivorous hosts. These volatiles are reliable indicators of host presence when their emission in plants is induced by herbivory. Hyperparasitoids may also use information from lower trophic levels to locate their parasitoid hosts …

Most endogenous viruses, an important proportion of eukaryote genomes, are doomed to slowly decay. Little is known, however, on how they evolve when they confer a benefit to their host. Bracoviruses are essential for the parasitism success of parasitoid wasps, whose genomes they integrated ~103 million …

To locate mating partners and essential resources such as food, oviposition sites and shelter, insects rely to a large extent on chemical cues. While most research has focused on cues derived from plants and insects, there is mounting evidence that indicates that micro‐organisms emit volatile compounds …

Insect hyperparasitoids are fourth trophic level organisms that commonly occur in terrestrial food webs, yet they are relatively understudied. These top-carnivores can disrupt biological pest control by suppressing the populations of their parasitoid hosts, leading to pest outbreaks, especially in confined …