Functioning of plant-aphid-natural enemy interactions may be associated with the structure and composition of withinfield vegetation, neighborhood fields and field borders, and the regional plant community of cropped and noncropped areas. Farmand region-scale vegetation in the wheat-growing area of the North American Great Plains was hypothesized to effect the abundance of two hymenopteran parasitoids, that differ in physiological and behavioral attributes, of the key pest aphid of wheat, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko). The parasitoids had greater sensitivity to farm-scale vegetation (wheat strip rotation with or without spring-sown sunflower) than region-scale vegetation (degree of diversification with other crops and wheat fields converted to conservation grasslands). A two-way factorial design of scale (farm- and region-scale) revealed that parasitoid abundance in grass-dominant (homogeneous) areas especially benefited from adding sunflower to the wheat-fallow strip crop rotation. Considerable sensitivity of the analysis was added when adjusting for seasonality of vegetation, revealing that the region-scale effects were most prominent late season. From a management viewpoint, adding sunflower into the wheat production system, especially in relatively homogeneous vegetation regions, tends to promote local parasitoid populations during the summer when spring-sown plants are maturing and wheat is not in cultivation. Contrasting results for A. albipodus and L. testaceipes were consistent with expectations based on behavioral and physiological attributes of the two aphid parasitoid families they represent. Still, the general management interpretation seems robust for the two parasitoids and has relevance to both farm- and region-scale management schemes that are occurring in the wheat production zone of North American Great Plains.
Combining a biotin-enrichment protocol and 454GS-FLX titanium pyrosequencing technology, we characterised 22 polymorphic microsatellite loci from the parasitic wasp, Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a cosmopolitan species commonly used in biological control against a wide range of both major lepidopterous pests of stored products and field crops in different parts of the world. Three multiplex PCR sets were optimised and characterised across 46 H. hebetor specimens from two samples collected from millet fields in Niger. Two to 11 alleles were found per locus and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.289 to 0.826. Polymorphism was detected in both samples with a similar level of observed heterozygosity (0.482 vs. 0.502) and number of alleles (4.1 vs. 3.6). Deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was detected at the same five loci in both samples and five or seven more loci in each sample but was not associated with heterozygote deficiencies. Even though evidence for linkage disequilibrium was found between a few alleles, these new loci segregated independently. The variability of the 22 loci will enable estimates of genetic diversity and structure patterns, as well as gene flow between H. hebetor populations at different spatial scales. Cross-species amplifications were successful among the six Bracon spp. tested and nine loci will be particularly appropriate for population genetic studies in B. brevicornis., Madougou Garba, Anne Loiseau, Laure Benoit, Nathalie Gauthier., and Obsahuje bibliografii
To understand the factors governing the diversity, abundance and host associations of parasitoids attacking frugivorous drosophilid flies on Iriomote-jima, a subtropical island of Japan, we monitored parasitism on several occasions over the period 2003–2009. Fifteen drosophilid and 12 parasitoid species were recorded. Three species of Drosophila, D. bipectinata, D. albomicans and D. takahashii, bred abundantly in banana baits, though their abundance varied between years and seasons. Frequent parasitoid species were Asobara japonica, A. pleuralis (Braconidae), Leptopilina ryukyuensis and L. pacifica (Figitidae). L. victoriae was recorded only in December 2003. In addition, host acceptance and host suitability of the four most frequently recorded parasitoid species were studied in the laboratory. Most parasitoid and drosophilid species showed species-specific associations with more than one antagonist species, suggesting that they have been subjected to complex coevolutionary interactions. In addition, host range of most of the parasitoid species included one of the three major Drosophila species, suggesting that the abundance of potential hosts is one of the factors determining the evolution of parasitoid host use., Biljan Novkovic ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Females of the parasitoid wasp Dinocampus coccinellae are known to parasitise both male and female coccinellid hosts. It is suggested that female hosts provide more resources for developing wasp larvae because they tend to be larger than male hosts, and female coccinellids have a much greater food intake than males. Thus the wasp's lifetime reproductive success should be increased by ovipositing preferentially in female rather than male hosts when given a choice. Laboratory experiments, using Coccinella septempunctata as a host, show that such a preference does exist. Wasps preferentially oviposit in females, and this preference is not simply a result of the larger mean size of females compared to males. These results corroborate higher rates of prevalence in female compared to male hosts reported previously.
Dinocampus coccinellae females which eclose in mid-summer have the opportunity to oviposit in overwintered or in newly eclosed coccinellid hosts. Given the short further longevity of overwintered hosts, offspring fitness would be increased by ovipositing preferentially in young hosts. Laboratory choice tests show that female D. coccinellae do exhibit such a preference.
Only in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula the large white butterfly Pieris brassicae was recorded to pass the summer in pupal aestivation, induced by long-day photoperiods. It is not clear why this photoperiodic response is regionally restricted. We investigated whether the change of life history in P. brassicae may affect the infestation by parasites. This was done by testing the coincidence of photoperiodic responses in both the host P. brassicae and in its main parasitoid Cotesia glomerata. While the response under short-day conditions was very similar in both species, no summer dormancy of any type was found in the parasitoid at photophases >= 15h and temperatures of 15°-25°C in contrast to 100% aestivation in the host. We suggest that aestivation is a response which allows the host to desynchronise its life cycle from that of its parasitoid. This is effective because parasitoid wasps cannot pass the temporary absence of suitable host stages by a similar developmental rest. C. glomerata is then forced to switch to less adequate host species which diminishes its reproductive success.
We used the aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi reared in its host Acyrthosiphon pisum to examine if male sexual attractive responses can be conditioned to an odour (vanilla) that is not present in the natural environment. We used prior mating experience (exposure to females) as a non-conditioning stimulus and vanilla odour as a conditioning stimulus. The behavioural responses were tested in a glass Y-olfactometer just after eclosion (i.e., initial response) and after a training experience (i.e., trained response). During the 10-min training period individual males were allowed to copulate with a virgin female with or without vanilla odour present, or were exposed only to vanilla odour. Wing fanning was a recurrent behaviour which denoted increased sexual attraction to a volatile stimulus. Total time and time doing wing fanning in each olfactometer arm were determined. Vanilla odour, which initially did not elicit sexual-related behaviours, triggered strong sexual attractive responses when males were trained to females plus vanilla odour. Neither copulation only nor vanilla odour only treatments elicited such behaviours in trained males. The results are discussed in terms of parasitoid learning ability and its ecological consequences.
The hypothesis that small species of aphidophagous coccinellids need lower aphid population densities for reproduction than large species (Dixon, 2007) was tested in the field. In 2006 we compared seasonal changes in the oviposition behaviour of two coccinellid species regularly found in cereal stands in central Europe, the large Coccinella septempunctata L. and the small Propylea quatuordecimpunctata (L.). Adults of both species were collected at 2-3 day intervals from stands of winter wheat and spring barley, females were allowed to deposit eggs for 24 h following collection and the percentage that laid eggs and the number of eggs were recorded. Both species colonized the cereal crop simultaneously in the middle of May. After colonization of the crop, while the aphid density was still low, few females of C. septempunctata oviposited and laid only a few eggs. Oviposition increased up to a maximum c. 1 month later and was closely associated with prey abundance. Of the females of P. quatuordecimpunctata, whose mass is about one quarter of that of the former species, the percentage ovipositing and number of eggs laid varied less in time and was less associated with prey abundance than in C. septempunctata. As predicted by theory, the small P. quatuordecimpunctata was more effective at exploiting the lower prey densities as it produced proportionally more of its eggs during the early stages of the aphid infestation than the larger C. septempunctata.
Theoretical models predict that brood guarding may evolve in situations where eggs are costly to produce or when handling times are long. This study reveals that females of the secondary hyperparasitoid Trichomalopsis apanteloctena guarded cocoon broods of Cotesia kariyai, a gregarious endoparasitoid. Hyperparasitoid females also monopolized host resources and protected their offspring by driving away other conspecific hyperparasitoid females. The females exhibited antagonistic behavior towards competitors through threatening body postures, biting and chasing. Using a video camera to determine how long a hyperparasitoid female attended and parasitized cocoons within a single host brood, it was found that after about 4 days, cocoon guarding behavior became much less apparent. Moreover, more than 90% of hosts were typically parasitized by a hyperparasitoid female over the course of 4 days after she commenced brood guarding. Observations of egg production during a female's lifetime revealed a physiological interval rhythm that typically lasted 3-4 days, which correlates almost exactly with the period during which the cocoons were guarded. To confirm the giving-up time for a host cocoon brood, hyperparasitoid females were given access to 24 h-old cocoon clusters, each containing 60-100 individual cocoons. Ninety percent of the females remained on cocoons for approximately 72 h. Furthermore, twenty-five percent of wasps continued attending and presumably guarding host cocoon broods for more than 138 h after the female first attended the brood. C. kariyai larvae pupate within a few hours of egression from their host and emerge as adults about 5 days (120 h) later. Therefore, many hyperparasitoid females continued to guard older host cocoons of greatly reduced quality as a resource for their progeny and some even after eclosion of the primary parasitoid. Late-brood guarding enabled a hyperparasitoid female to protect her own progeny from other hyperparasitoid females that readily attacked and killed them when she was removed. Our study thus reveals that extended guarding behavior is an adaptive mechanism that probably plays an important role in the survival of the original brood.
We investigated the variation in body colour and its thermoregulatory function in Meteorus pulchricornis (Wesmael) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a parasitoid wasp of Spodoptera and other free-living lepidopteran larvae. We show that the body colour of adult wasps darkens when cocoons are kept at low temperatures. The range in the variation in colour, however, differs for different parts of the body and among uniparental (thelytokous) strains. This melanism enables these wasps to attain a body temperature in sunshine up to 2°C. Moreover, this small gain in body temperature can markedly increase the flight activity of wasps at low ambient temperatures. We conclude that the variation in body colour that resulted from rearing the cocoons at different temperatures enable the wasps to adapt to changing thermal environments. The ecological significance of the difference in the degree of melanism of the different strains is discussed., Yosuke Abe, Takuma Nishimura, Kaoru Maeto., and Seznam literatury