Influence de la variété de laitue (Lactuca sativa) sur le puceron (Nasonovia ribisnigri) et le parasitoïde (Aphidius ervi) dans le contexte d’une relation tritrophique
New cultivars of commercialized lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) with an improved resistance to pests are now available. The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of lettuce resistance on the lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri (Mosley) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and one of its parasitoids, Aphidius ervi  Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).   Lettuce resistance negatively affects aphid fitness by: increasing its mortality and developmental time and decreasing its fecundity, size and mass. This impact on aphid fitness also negatively impacts the parasitoid by decreasing its proportion of emergence, the size and mass of adults and decreasing fecundity of females.  Female parasitoids estimate hosts quality in an absolute way as they can discriminate between high and low quality hosts, without previous experience. High quality host acceptation remains constant when hosts are successively offered to a female, indicating that the female can adequately estimate host value without experience. However, this absolute estimate of host quality is modified through experience as the female changes her patch exploitation according to the quality of the patches she encounters. When low quality hosts are successively offered, female acceptation increases. Accepting low quality hosts for oviposition can be preferable to the risk of not using all her eggs. The two strategies combined, using an absolute and a relative estimation, could lead to optimal patch exploitation by A. ervi.
Gène Nr Fitness Natural enemies Ecological sink Biological control Partial plant resistance Nr gene Third trophic level