Investigating the role of sexual conflict in parasitoid- host eco-evolutionary dynamics

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Finding ways to grow enough food to sustain the ever-growing human population whileminimising detrimental impacts on the natural environment is a pressing global challenge[1,2]. Current food production systems rely heavily on the use of agro-chemicals for pestcontrol, the negative impacts of which are extreme for species, ecosystems and forclimate change [3-7]. Integrated pest management (IPM) is one strategy that will becritical if we are to feed the human population without inflicting irreversible environmentaldamage. IPM prioritizes biodiversity-based pest control and considers the use of chemicalpesticides only as a last resort [8].Parasitoid wasps are a large group of insects, which are commonly used as a chemical-free means of controlling insect pests (biological control). Adults are free-living, femaleslay their eggs on or in other species and their offspring feed on this host, typically anotherinsect, invariably killing it. In addition to their economic value, parasitoid wasps have longbeen used by blue skies researchers to understand fundamental questions aboutevolution, ecology and physiology [9,10]. This research has supported their use in cropprotection and assisted biocontrol practitioners in selecting the most appropriate speciesto control a given pest [9,10].Despite the abundance of studies on parasitoid behavioural ecology, these species havereceived little attention in studies of sexual selection and sexual conflict [11]. Sexualconflict occurs when the optimum strategy or trait is different for males and females [12].For instance, the optimal mating rate is generally higher for males than females. This canresult in reduced fitness for females if accepting or resisting superfluous male copulationattempts is costly [12, 13]. If these costs manifest as reduced offspring production, therecan be consequences for recruitment and even population viability [13]For parasitoid wasps in natural and agricultural settings, sexual conflict may haveprofound consequences for parasitism rates. Understanding the extent to which sexualconflict influences individual and population fitness in these insects provides new andvaluable information on how aspects of these species' mating systems can influencehost-parasitoid dynamics and coevolution as well as the efficacy of pest control underdifferent IPM scenarios.