Role of Learning in Insect Parasitism

Several stochastic models of the process of parasitism, each incorporating learning in a different way, are developed. The clues the parasitoid learns to use to find its hosts are divided into two types, clues to individual hosts and clues to the host's habitat. The value of clues to the habitat can be a reflection of the spatial distribution of the hosts. The conclusions suggested by the experimental test of the models with the ichneumonid wasp Nemeritis canescens are that Nemeritis can learn to hunt its hosts in a novel environment;that a model postulating the learning of clues to the hosts fits better than a model postulating the learning of one: and that learning is potentially a stabilizing factor in the dynamics of host—parasite systems.