DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzck
title: Data from: Longevity of hymenopteran parasitoids in natural vs. agricultural habitats and implications for biological control

description: Agricultural habitats are frequently disturbed, and disturbances could
 have large effects on species in upper trophic levels such as hymenopteran
 parasitoids that are important for biological control. A strategy for
 conservation biological control is to provide a diversified agricultural
 landscape which increases the availability of resources such as sugar
 required by parasitoid biological control agents. Here, we ask whether
 parasitoids occurring in agriculture benefit from sugar resources more or
 less than parasitoids occurring in natural habitats surrounding
 agricultural fields. We collected parasitoids from agricultural alfalfa
 fields, field margins and natural prairies, and in the lab we randomly
 divided them into two treatments: half were given a constant supply of a
 sugar source to test their residual lifespan, and half were given neither
 sugar nor water to test their hardiness. Collected individuals were
 monitored daily and their day of death recorded. Parasitoids receiving a
 sugar source lived substantially longer than those without. Parasitoids
 collected in prairies lived longer than those from alfalfa fields in both
 the residual lifespan and hardiness treatments, with parasitoids from
 field margins being intermediate between them. Furthermore, the benefits
 of a sugar source to increase longevity was lower for parasitoids
 collected in agriculture than in natural habitats. This suggests that,
 even though parasitoid biological control agents benefit from sugar
 resources, their short lifespans make the benefit of sugar resources small
 compared to parasitoids that occur in natural habitats and have longer
 lifespans, and are adapted to consistent sugar sources.
description: Adult parasitoids were collected using sweep nets from alfalfa
 fields, margins of alfalfa fields, and prairies at the Arlington
 Agricultural Research Station, the West Madison Agricultural Station, and
 the Goose Pond restored tallgrass prairies; these sites were in Dane and
 Columbia Counties, Wisconsin, USA. Samples were
 collected from 13 alfalfa fields, nine in Arlington Agricultural Research
 Station and four in West Madison Agricultural Station. Field margins were
 sampled next to seven of the sampled alfalfa fields in Arlington and all
 four fields in West Madison and five restored tallgrass prairies, all in
 proximity to the Arlington Agricultural Research Station.
 Each individual parasitoid was then transferred to a 100 x 15-mm
 petri dish and mortality was monitored daily. All collected parasitoids on
 a given sample date were randomly divided between two treatments: half had
 a drop of honey placed in the middle-upper part of the petri dish and no
 water, and half had no honey or water. Petri dishes with wasps were kept
 under the same conditions in the lab at 25 ± 1 °C, 60% RH and LD
 14:10h.
description: # Data from: Longevity of hymenopteran parasitoids in natural vs.
 agricultural habitats and implications for biological control
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzck](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzck) ## Description of the data and file structure Detailed explanation for the file Longevity_2021.csv: Each row in the file represents one individual parasitoid wasp. | Name in file | Detailed explanation | | :--------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | no | Number | | Day | the day of the date of sampling | | Month | the month of the date of sampling | | Year | the year of the date of sampling (all 2021) | | Field\_veg\_type | The number of the field in the station \_ agricultural/natural vegetation | | Habitat | The habitat sampled out of three: agricultural (alfalfa fields), margin (of alfalfa fields and prairie | | Dish\_ID | The specific ID code each petri dish with a parasitoid had | | Honey | Type of treatment: Yes – wasp got honey, and No – no honey was provided | | Day\_after\_harv | The number of days passed since the last harvest of alfalfa and the sampling day | | days\_in\_lab | The number of days the parasitoid wasp survived in the lab | | Super-family | The super-family the parasitoid belongs to | | Family | The family the parasitoid belongs to | | Genus | The genus the parasitoid belongs to, if NA the parasitoid was not identified to the genus level | | spp | The species the parasitoid belongs to, if NA the parasitoid was not identified to the species level | | Sex | The sex of the parasitoid: Female, Male, or if Unknown the sex of the parasitoid was not determent | ## Sharing/Access information No sharing/Access information ## Code/Software No code/Software