Chapter 8. T. S. Bellows, R. G. van Driesche. 1999. Life table construction and analysis for evaluating biological control agents. Pages 199-223. In: Thomas S. Bellows, T. W. Fisher, L. E. Caltagirone, D. L. Dahlsten, G. Gorth, C. B. Huffaker. 1999. Handbook of Biological Control: Principles and Applications of Biological Control. San Francisco CA: Academic Press, 1046 pages.

Keywords: types of life tables, types of data used in life table construction, single-species system, joint host-parasitoid system, application to biological control systems, determining total numbers entering stages, stage-frequency analysis, recruitment, population growth rates, death rates, comparison of methods, additional sources of mortality by parasitoids, host feeding, deaths from ovipositor piercing and envenomization, lost natality, impact of sample design, behavioral biases, biases affecting detection of density dependence, assessing quantitative impact of natural enemies, parameters in the life table, impact of sequential versus contemporaneous factors in a life table, interpreting life tables, impact of

single versus two contemporaneous factors in a life table, life table for a Pieris rapae-Cortesia glomerata system, parasitoids present, life table for a Pieris rapae-Cortesia glomerata system, parasitoids removed, determining ecological roles of natural enemies, role questions and density relatedness, ecological roles and hypotheses, analytical techniques, tests for population stability, tests for density relatedness in a specific factor, experimental designs for life table studies, life tables for first generation Phyllonorycter cratagella populations in an unsprayed orchard, life tables for first generation Phyllonorycter cratagella populations in a sprayed orchard, applications to categories of natural enemies other than parasitoids, pathogens of arthropods, predators,beneficial herbivores and plant pathogens, augmentation