Insect-plant food webs could provide new clues for pest management

Food webs describe feeding interactions in a community. Parasitoid food webs concentrate on such interactions among plants, phytophagous insects, and their parasitoids. Studies of them have not been applied to agricultural systems, despite the widespread use of parasitoids in insect pest management programs. This article compares parasitoid food webs from a native and a cultivated habitat in the same region, focusing on aspects relevant to pest management and seeking to elicit further interest in this type of study. The study system involves Agromyzid leaf miners, their plant hosts and parasitoids, from Cordoba (central Argentina). Inspection of the webs suggests interesting possibilities for detecting useful parasitoids and plant-alternative host-parasitoid interactions.