Meaning of “Percent Parasitism” in Studies of Insect Parasitoids

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Abstract
In simulation models, host and parasitoid phenologies influenced values seen in percent parasitism samples, making them poor indicators of total parasitoid impact per host generation. Key factors were relative entry and exit rates of hosts and parasitoids and degree of overlap between entry and exit of either parasitoids or hosts. Parasitism of tissue-feeding-stage larvae of the apple blotch leafminer, Phyllonorycter crataegella (Clemens), exemplified distortion of sample percent parasitism values by one of the processes examined in the simulation models, namely, differential emergence rates of parasitized and nonparasitized hosts. Recommended practices for strengthening future studies of parasitoid impact include: (1) rigorous definition of the susceptible stage, (2) delineation of phenologies of the susceptible host stage and the immature parasitoid stage, (3) assessment of the behavior of parasitized hosts, (4) avoidance of sampling before completion of parasitoid attack, and (5) avoidance of summation across samples or equating of peak and generational levels of parasitism.

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