Trophic and Guild Interactions in Biological Control

Although they are mostly viewed as primary carnivores (developing on herbivores), natural enemies can also be secondary carnivores (when they attack other natural enemies), hosts, prey, or even herbivores, as several species may also feed on and acquire energy from plant resources. This volume explores modern concepts of trophic and guild interactions among natural enemies in natural and agricultural ecosystems - a field that has become a hot topic in ecology and biological control over the past decade. Internationally recognized scientists have combined their expertise and passion to examine how species interactions between biological control agents, such as competition, predation, parasitism, disease infection, mutualism, and omnivory affect arthropod population dynamics and the outcome of biological control. The common approach is the use of ecological theory to better interpret the prevalence, nature and outcome of trophic and guild interactions and, from a more applied perspective, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how and when to use biological control. This book origins from a symposium we organized in May 2005 at a joint meeting of the Biocontrol Network of Canada and the International Organization for Biological Control in Magog, Québec, Canada. During this symposium, we discussed concepts of direct and indirect interactions among natural enemies of herbivores in natural and agricultural ecosystems — a field of growing interest in ecology and biological control. Natural enemies of herbivores exist in nature as an assemblage of species that interact with one another and may transcend trophic levels. The community embracing a natural enemy can be complex and includes taxonomically dissimilar species of pathogens, parasitoids, and predators. These…