ÁNGEL CAPURRO
	"DESTOBIO 2000" August 23-27, 2000 West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

"Does Diapause Contribute to Stability of Host-Parasitoid Interactions?"

ABSTRACT: The ability of univoltine insects to delay adult emergency of a fraction of the population (hence skipping breeding opportunities) Is a common feature of many species living in unpredictable environments. Prolonged or extended diapause, as this phenomena is better know, has been related to a risk-spreading strategy which has been shown to contribute to the persistence of single population models. However, with the exception of the a few works, its role in the dynamics of species interactions, such as host-parasitoid systems, remains an open question.

We modified the classical Nicholson-Bailey host-parasitoid model and May's non-random attack version, considering three common cases of host and parasitoid development patterns: (a) where parasitoids depend on host physiology for their own development, (b) where parasitoids interfere with hosts development, and (c) where hosts diapause is independent from parasitoid attack. We show that prolonged diapause provides extended persistence compared with the classical model and extended stabilizing conditions compared with the classical non-random attack version. We conclude that stability conferred through prolonged diapause in host-parasitoid systems is highly dependent on the biological details of the interaction, which may vary wildly across nature.

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