High nymphal host density and mortality negatively impact parasitoid complex during an insect herbivore outbreak

Insect herbivore outbreaks frequently occur and this may be due to factors that restrict top-down control by parasitoids, for example, host-parasitoid asynchrony, hyperparasitisation, resource limitation and climate. Few studies have examined host-parasitoid density relationships during an insect herbivore outbreak in a natural ecosystem with diverse parasitoids. We studied parasitisation patterns of Cardiaspina psyllids during an outbreak in a Eucalyptus woodland. First, we established the trophic roles of the parasitoids through a species-specific multiplex PCR approach on mummies from which parasitoids emerged. Then, we assessed host-parasitoid density relationships across three spatial scales (leaf, tree and site) over one year. We detected four endoparasitoid species of the family Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera); two primary parasitoid and one heteronomous hyperparasitoid Psyllaephagus species (the latter with female development as a primary parasitoid and male development as a hyperparasitoid), and the hyperparasitoid Coccidoctonus psyllae. Parasitoid development was host-synchronised, although synchrony between sites appeared constrained during winter (due to temperature differences). Parasitisation was predominantly driven by one primary parasitoid species and was mostly inversely host-density dependent across the spatial scales. Hyperparasitisation by C. psyllae was psyllid-density dependent at the site scale, however, this only impacted the rarer primary parasitod. High larval parasitoid mortality due to density dependent nymphal psyllid mortality (a consequence of resource limitation) compounded by a summer heat wave was incorporated in the assessment and resulted in density independence of host-parasitoid relationships. As such, high larval parasitoid mortality during insect herbivore outbreaks may contribute to the absence of host density dependent parasitisation during outbreak events.