Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 22 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5734, p. 532
DOI: 10.1126/science.309.5734.532o
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

This Week in Science

A combination of experiment and modeling suggests a simple mechanism for the stabilization of an interaction between a prey species and its natural enemy. Murdoch et al. (p. 610) show that experimentally induced outbreaks of the California red scale insect on individual trees were stabilized within a few months by the parasitoid Aphytis, the biological control agent widely used to protect citrus crops. The key to stabilization is the interaction of life-history characteristics of the two partners in the interaction. The actual stabilizing mechanism can be modeled as differential vulnerability at different stages of the pest's life cycle, combined with the fast developmental rate of the parasitoid. The mechanism may be quite general because a large proportion of interactions of prey and natural enemies share these characteristics.




To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)