Application of Wyatt-White Method to Calculating Intrinsic Rates of Increase For Hymenopterous Parasitoids

Th method developed by Wyatt and White (1977) was applied to calculate the intrinsic rates of increase for parasitoids based on 23 fecundity data sets from the literature.The studies showed that there existed the linear relationship between the accurate values of rm and ln (Md)/d or ln (Md/2)/d,that is,1) rm=0.845 ln (Md)/d or 2)rm=0.880 ln (Md/2)/d.Where d is the prereproductive time,Md is the number of female offspring produced per original femlae from the first to the dthday of reproduction,and Md/2 is the number of female offspring produced per original female from the first to the (d/2) th day of reproduction.These equations can provide the accurate estimates of rm for parasitoids in this study.The approach is advantageous because it does not require the construction of detailed fecundity tables for estimating parasitoid rates of increase.Of course,whether these equations are appropriate for the other taxa will need to be further studied.