Jacques Brodeur & Guy Boivin 
Trophic and Guild Interactions in Biological Control 

This book origins from a symposium we organized in May 2005 at a joint meeting of the Biocontrol Network of Canada and the International Organization for Biological Control in Magog, Québec, Canada. During this symposium, we discussed concepts of direct and indirect interactions among natural enemies of herbivores in natural and agricultural ecosystems — a field of growing interest in ecology and biological control. Natural enemies of herbivores exist in nature as an assemblage of species that interact with one another and may transcend trophic levels. The community embracing a natural enemy can be complex and includes taxonomically dissimilar species of pathogens, parasitoids, and predators. These interactions involve predation and competition processes and share the typical characteristics of resource-consumer relationships where the resource species is killed and consumed by the other. Although they are mostly viewed as primary carnivores (developing on herbivores), natural enemies can also be secondary carnivores (when they attack other natural enemies), hosts, prey, or even herbivores, as several species may also feed on and acquire energy from plant resources.

Table of Content

The Influence of Intraguild Predation on the Suppression of a Shared Prey Population: An Empirical Reassessment.- Intraguild Predation Usually does not Disrupt Biological Control.- Multiple Predator Interactions and Food-Web Connectance: Implications for Biological Control.- Inter-Guild Influences on Intra-Guild Predation in Plant-Feeding Omnivores.- Trophic and Guild Interactions and the Influence of Multiple Species on Disease.- Intra- and Interspecific Interactions among Parasitoids: Mechanisms, Outcomes and Biological Control.- Indirect Effects, Apparent Competition and Biological Control.- Ant-Hemipteran Mutualisms: Keystone Interactions that Alter Food Web Dynamics and Influence Plant Fitness.- Interspecific Competition among Natural Enemies and Single Versus Multiple Introductions in Biological Control.- Experimental Approaches to Understanding the Relationship Between Predator Biodiversity and Biological Control.

About the author

Jacques Brodeur is professor of ecology and entomology at the Université de Montreal and chair of the Canada research chair in biocontrol. Guy Boivin is a research scientist for Agriculture and Agrifood Canada and adjunct professor at Mc Gill University. They are both actively involved in research on insect natural enemies and biological control.