In a context where hosts are distributed in patches and susceptible to parasitism for a limited time, female parasitoids foraging for hosts might experience intraspecific competition. We investigated the effects of host and parasitoid developmental stage and intraspecific competition among foraging females on host-searching behaviour in the parasitoid wasp Hyposoter horticola. We found that H. horticola females have a pre-reproductive adult stage during which their eggs are not mature yet and they forage very little for hosts. The wasps foraged for hosts more once they were mature. Behavioural experiments showed that wasps’ foraging activity also increased as host eggs aged and became susceptible to parasitism, and as competition among foraging wasps increased.

中文翻译：

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种内竞争和寄主寄生蜂发育时间对寄生蜂觅食行为的影响

在寄主呈斑块分布且在有限时间内易受寄生影响的情况下，寻找寄主的雌性寄生蜂可能会经历种内竞争。我们研究了寄主和寄生蜂发育阶段以及觅食雌性之间的种内竞争对寄生蜂 Hyposoter horticola 寄主搜索行为的影响。我们发现 H. horticola 雌性有一个繁殖前的成虫阶段，在此期间它们的卵尚未成熟，并且很少为宿主觅食。一旦成熟，黄蜂就会更多地寻找寄主。行为实验表明，随着宿主卵的老化和变得容易被寄生，以及觅食黄蜂之间的竞争加剧，黄蜂的觅食活动也会增加。