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Impact of mating status on egg-laying and superparasitism behaviour in a parasitoid wasp
- Source :
- Entomologia Experimentalis et applicata, Entomologia Experimentalis et applicata, 2007, pp.279-285
- Publication Year :
- 2007
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2007.
-
Abstract
- Most parasitoid female wasps can distinguish between unparasitized and parasitized hosts and use this information to optimize their progeny and sex allocation. In this study, we explored the impact of mating on oviposition behaviour (parasitism and self- and conspecific superparasitism) on both unparasitized and already parasitized hosts in the solitary parasitoid wasp Eupelmus vuilleti (Crw.) (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae). Virgin and mated females had the same oviposition behaviour and laid eggs preferentially on unparasitized hosts. The sex ratio (as the proportion of females) of eggs laid by mated females in parasitism and conspecific superparasitism was 0.67 ± 0.04 and 0.57 ± 0.09, respectively. Likewise, females laid more eggs in conspecific superparasitism than self-superparasitism under our experimental conditions. These experiments demonstrate that E. vuilleti females can (i) discriminate between unparasitized and parasitized hosts and adapt the number of eggs they lay accordingly, and (ii) probably discriminate self from conspecific superparasitized hosts. Finally, mating does not appear to influence the host discrimination capacity, the ovarian function, or the oviposition behaviour.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Eupelmidae
biology
Ecology
fungi
Zoology
Parasitism
Hymenoptera
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Parasitoid
Parasitoid wasp
010602 entomology
Insect Science
Mating
10. No inequality
[SDV.BDD]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Development Biology
ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Sex allocation
Sex ratio
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15707458 and 00138703
- Volume :
- 123
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....02296bbc2fc4c6ab98f36ba3ee6c9694