Differential use of conspecific-derived information by sexual and asexual parasitic wasps exploiting partially depleted host patches

Amat, Isabelle; Desouhant, Emmanuel; Bernstein, Carlos

doi:10.1007/s00265-008-0691-4

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Amat et al (2006) saw no differences in the oviposition behaviors of arrhenotokous and thelytokous Venturia canescens Gravenhorst (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), although arrhenotokous females exhibited longer patch residence times. Subsequently, Amat et al (2009) found similar responses by both populations to parasitized hosts, but thelytokous females adjusted their patch residence time by using cues from conspecifics while arrhenotokous wasps did not. In general, these studies found that although there may be some behavioral differences between thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations during initial movement after release, both populations display similar host selection, acceptance, and handling behaviors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Are individuals from thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations equally adept as biocontrol agents? Orientation and host searching behavior of a fruit fly parasitoid

et al. 2011

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Hymenopteran parasitoids generally reproduce by arrhenotoky, in which males develop from unfertilized eggs and females from fertilized eggs. A minority reproduce by thelytoky, in which allfemale broods are derived from unfertilized eggs. Thelytokous populations are potentially of interest for augmentative biological control programs since the exclusive production of females could significantly lower the costs of mass rearing. Behavioral traits are a major component of parasitoid efficacy. Here, we examined orientation and host searching behavior in thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations of the fruit fly parasitoid Odontosema anastrephae Borgmeier (Hymenoptera: Figitidae). Orientation behavior to various odorant sources was studied in a two-choice olfactometer. No major differences were found between thelytokous and arrhenotokous wasps for this behavior. However, when host-searching behaviors were analyzed, some differences were found. Thelytokous females arrived sooner, foraged longer, and remained longer on non-infested guavas than arrhenotokous females. Individuals of both forms exhibited similar stereotyped behavioral sequences vis-à-vis guava treatments, with only slight deviations detected. Our results suggest that individuals from selected thelytokous and arrhenotokous O. anastrephae populations have similar abilities to search for tephritid larvae, supporting the use of thelytokous strains for augmentative releases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Are individuals from thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations equally adept as biocontrol agents? Orientation and host searching behavior of a fruit fly parasitoid

et al. 2011

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“…These studies about thermal tolerance (Amat et al, 2006;Foray et al, 2011), learning ability (Thiel et al, 2006;Froissart et al, 2012), and patch exploitation strategy (Amat et al, 2009) converge to suggest a better adaptation of arrhenotokous females to the ecological conditions encountered in the wild. These studies about thermal tolerance (Amat et al, 2006;Foray et al, 2011), learning ability (Thiel et al, 2006;Froissart et al, 2012), and patch exploitation strategy (Amat et al, 2009) converge to suggest a better adaptation of arrhenotokous females to the ecological conditions encountered in the wild.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Fuelling flight in a parasitic wasp: which energetic substrate to use?

Amat

Besnard

Foray

et al. 2012

Ecological Entomology

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1. Flight is an energy-demanding behaviour in insects. In parasitic wasps, strategies of nutrient acquisition and allocation, resulting life-history trade-offs and relationships with foraging strategies and resource availability have received much attention. However, despite the ecological importance of dispersal between host and food patches, and the great impact energy diverted to flight should have on lifetime reproductive success, the eco-physiology of flight in parasitoids is poorly understood.2. The objective of this study is to (i) identify the energetic resources used to fuel flight, and (ii) relate nutrient type and rate of utilisation to selective pressures in terms of resource availability posed by the environment.3. Using a flight mill and biochemical assays, we compared flight performance and nutrient dynamics during flight between two reproductive modes of the parasitoid Venturia canescens Gravenhorst, which is known to thrive preferentially in contrasted environments (i.e. natural vs. anthropogenic habitat), differing notably in host and food distribution. 4. Biochemical analyses of different nutrient types showed that glycogen is the flight fuel used by this species, yet no significant differences in its dynamics in flight were found between the two reproductive modes.5. Results suggest that both glycogen quantity and flight performance are related to the diverging ecological conditions experienced by thelytokous and arrhenotokous strains.

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“…Venturia canescens females usually lay only one egg per host larva, and do not superparasitize (Amat, Desouhant & Bernstein, 2009). Under our experimental conditions, hosts were offered in patches and were rapidly and easily encountered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Does synovigeny confer reproductive plasticity upon a parasitoid wasp that is faced with variability in habitat richness?

Pelosse¹,

Jervis²,

Bernstein³

et al. 2011

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

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Understanding the factors that constrain the reproductive success of animals and their demographics requires detailed insight into the processes of resource acquisition and allocation in relation to habitat richness. Parasitoid wasp females are valuable models in this respect because their lifetime reproductive success is closely tied to host availability. Parasitoids that manufacture eggs throughout adult life (i.e. 'synovigenic' species) and characteristically acquire nutrients via feeding are predicted to be plastic in their allocation to egg manufacture. Using the synovigenic parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens, we tested whether this prediction holds when females are faced with variation in the availability of both hosts and food. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine how environmental variation affects parasitoid reproductive success and the lifetime dynamics of egg load and of major nutrient types. Our results, surprisingly, show that female V. canescens lacks a significant degree of reproductive plasticity under our experimental conditions. In particular, allocation of resources to reproduction was high irrespective of host availability. We attribute this lack of flexibility to the low energy content of V. canescens' eggs and to features peculiar to the ecology of this species. Our findings shed new light on the physiological factors that constrain parasitoid lifetime reproductive success.

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Differential use of conspecific-derived information by sexual and asexual parasitic wasps exploiting partially depleted host patches

Cited by 25 publications

References 61 publications

Are individuals from thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations equally adept as biocontrol agents? Orientation and host searching behavior of a fruit fly parasitoid

Are individuals from thelytokous and arrhenotokous populations equally adept as biocontrol agents? Orientation and host searching behavior of a fruit fly parasitoid

Fuelling flight in a parasitic wasp: which energetic substrate to use?

Does synovigeny confer reproductive plasticity upon a parasitoid wasp that is faced with variability in habitat richness?

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