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1. Allelochemicals in herbivore diet are known to affect the development of higher trophic levels, such as parasitoids and predators.

2. This study examines how differing levels of nicotine affects the development of a herbivore, its parasitoid and secondary hyperparasitoid over four trophic levels. Separate cohorts of the herbivore, Manduca sexta, were fed on artificial diets containing 0.0, 0.1, and 0.5% wet weights of nicotine. Some of the larvae in each cohort were separately parasitised in the first (L1) and third (L3) instars by the gregarious endoparasitoid, Cotesia congregata. Newly emerged parasitoid cocoons were, in turn, parasitised by the hyperparasitoid, Lysibia nana.

3. Pupal mass in M. sexta was negatively correlated with nicotine concentrations in the artificial diet, although larval development time was unaffected.

4. Hyperparasitoid survival was highest when there were low levels of nicotine in the diet …