Cooperator:

Results from exposing four to eight glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS) eggs to one female parasitoid for one h in a ‘complex experimental system ’ showed that parasitism of eggs one-five days of age ranged from 81-97 % for Gonatocerus ashmeadi (G. ashmeadi), whereas, parasitism by Gonatocerus tuberculifemur (G. tuberculifemur) ranged from 18-66%. Eggs five days of age were less suitable for G. tuberculifemur development (resulting in 18 % parasitism). When G. ashmeadi and G. tuberculifemur were presented simultaneously with one GWSS egg mass for one h (complex system) or 15 min (simple system), parasitism by G. ashmeadi was consistently 12-54 % higher than G. tuberculifemur for all egg ages. There was no significant difference in overall percentage parasitism of GWSS eggs between vials containing G. ashmeadi only and vials containing both G. ashmeadi and G. tuberculifemur for both simple and complex systems. This may be attributable to conspecific presence increasing non-ovipositional behavior such as aggressive chasing (up to 1.3 % of time) and antennating conspecifics (up to 1.3 % of time), thereby reducing time available for oviposition. This may suggest that the addition of G. tuberculifemur to the resident parasitoid guild in California may not enhance biological control of GWSS. Finally, in experiments where 50 GWSS eggs were exposed simultaneously to one female G. ashmeadi and G. tuberculifemur for 24 h or five days, parasitism by G. ashmeadi was 44-53 % higher than G. tuberculifemur for both exposure times. Results from all completed experiments assessing the effect of environmental complexity, egg age, and competitio