Does the temporal partitioning of shared resources allow for competing taxa to coexist and diversify, and if so, how is this accomplished in nature? Here, we explore this issue in one of the words most biodiverse group of animals, insect parasites (parasitoids). Specifically, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine if temporal partitioning of host resources via variation in oviposition (egg deposition) timing mitigates competition among parasitoid insects sharing (developing within) the same insect hosts.
Results/Conclusions
In our analysis of 64 oviposition manipulation studies, we found that, in the absence of a difference in the timing of oviposition, competition was common (observed in 64% of the cases) and one species was typically competitive superior (survived to adulthood a greater proportion of the time). In 60% of the cases, however, the competitively inferior species could gain an advantage over the superior competitor by ovipositing first into shared hosts. Furthermore, this competitive advantage increased as the interval between oviposition times increased. These results were also linked to patterns observed in nature. We found that the more competitively inferior a species was in the oviposition manipulation experiments, the larger the time difference was between when competing species oviposited in nature. In addition, the larger the difference between the timing of oviposition, the more abundant the inferior species was in natural populations. Overall, our analysis suggests that the order and timing of oviposition is an important life history strategy mediating competition between parasitoids and may allow for multiple taxa to co-exist on shared hosts and may play a critical role in structuring insect communities and contributing to the great diversity of parasitoid species in nature.