Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T23:48:16.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The influence of host quality on progeny and sex allocation in the pupal ectoparasitoid, Muscidifurax raptorellus (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J.A. Harvey  and
G.J.Z. Gols
J.A. Harvey*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 8031, 6700 EH Wageningen, The Netherlands
G.J.Z. Gols
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 8031, 6700 EH Wageningen, The Netherlands
*
*Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 739 Russell Laboratories, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. Fax: 608 262 3222 E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Muscidifurax raptorellus Kogan & Legner is a gregarious pteromalid ectoparasitoid that attacks pupae and pharate adults from several families of the higher Diptera. Egg-to-adult development time, adult parasitoid size and emerging offspring ( = secondary) sex ratio of M. raptorellus were compared with clutch size in two hosts that differed greatly in mass, the small Musca domestica Linnaeus and the larger Calliphora vomitoria Linnaeus. The mean number of emerging parasitoids did not vary significantly with host species, although slightly higher clutch sizes were recorded in C. vomitoria. Irrespective of offspring sex, parasitoids completed development more rapidly in M. domestica than in C. vomitoria. In the small host, the development time and adult size of M. raptorellus were negatively correlated with clutch size. By contrast, female parasitoid size was unaffected by clutch size in the larger host, C. vomitoria. In both hosts, female parasitoids were significantly larger than male parasitoids. The secondary sex ratio (percentage males) of emerging parasitoids was significantly lower in C. vomitoria, and varied with clutch size in both hosts. In C. vomitoria, the greatest proportion of females emerged from hosts with the highest clutch sizes, whereas in M. domestica hosts with the highest clutch sizes produced the lowest proportion of female progeny. The results described here show that the development of M. raptorellus is profoundly affected by interspecific differences in host quality. Our results suggest that mating structure and host quality have potentially different effects on sex ratio decisions in M. raptorellus, and perhaps other gregarious parasitoids.

Type
Review Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , June 1998 , pp. 299 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Askew, R.R. & Shaw, M.R. (1986) Parasitoid communities: their size, structure and development. pp. 225–264in Waage, J.K. & Greathead, D.J. (Eds) Insect parasitoids: 13th symposium of the Royal Entomological Society of London. London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Beckage, N.E. & Riddiford, L.M. (1983) Growth and development of the endoparasitic wasp Apanteles congregatus: dependence on host nutritional status and parasite load. Physiological Entomology 8, 231–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnov, E.L. (1979) The genetical evolution of patterns of sexuality: Darwinian fitness. American Naturalist 113, 465–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnov, E.L. (1982) The theory of sex allocation. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Godfray, H.C.J. (1986) Models for clutch size and sex ratio with sibling interaction. Theoretical Population Biology 30, 215–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfray, H.C.J. (1994) Parasitoids: behavioral and evolutionary ecology. 473 pp. Princeton New Jersey, Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, N.T. & Godfray, H.C.J. (1988) Local mate competition, sex ratio and clutch size in bethylid wasps. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 22, 211–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W.D. (1967) Extraordinary sex ratios. Science 156, 477–488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardy, I.C.W. (1992) Non-binomial sex allocation and brood sex ratio variances in the parasitoid Hymenoptera. Oikos 65, 143–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, I.C.W. (1994) Sex ratio and mating structure in the parasitoid Hymenoptera. Oikos 69, 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, I.C.W. & Cook, J.M. (1995) Brood sex ratio variance, developmental mortality and virginity in a gregarious parasitoid wasp. Oecologia 103, 162–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J.A., Vet, L.E.M., Jiang, N. & Gols, G.J.Z. (1997) Nutritional ecology of the interaction between larvae of the gregarious ectoparasitoid, Muscidifurax raptorellus (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) and their pupal host, Musca domestica(Diptera: Muscidae). Physiological Entomology (in press).Google Scholar
Jervis, M.A. & Copland, M.J.W. (1996) The life cycle. pp. 63–161in Jervis, M.A. & Kidd, N.A.C. (Eds) Insect natural enemies: practical approaches to their study and evaluation. London, Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jervis, M.A. & Kidd, N.A.C. (1986) Host-feeding strategies in hymenopteran parasitoids. Biological Reviews 61, 395–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, B.H. (1987) Offspring sex ratios in parasitoid wasps. Quarterly Review of Biology 62, 367–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, B.H. (1990) Sex ratio manipulation by the parasitoid wasp Spalangia cameroni in response to host age: a test of the host-size model. Evolutionary Ecology 4, 149–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legner, E.F. (1987) Inheritance of gregarious and solitary oviposition in Muscidifurax raptorellus Kogan and Legner (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). Canadian Entomologist 119, 791–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackauer, M. & Sequeira, R. (1993) Patterns of development in insect parasites. pp. 1–23in Beckage, N.E., Thompson, S.N. & Federici, B.A. (Eds) Parasites and pathogens of insects. Volume 1. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ode, P.J. & Strand, M.R. (1995) Progeny and sex allocation decisions of the polyembryonic wasp, Copidosoma floridanum. Journal of Animal Ecology 64, 213–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, D.B. & Denlinger, D.L. (1995) Fecundity and development of the ectoparasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis are dependent on host quality. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 76, 15–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, J.M. & Smith, J.J.B. (1985) Host volume measurement by the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma minutum: the roles of curvature and surface area. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 39, 213–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takagi, M. (1985) The reproductive strategy of the gregarious parasitoid, Pteromalus puparum (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). 1. Optimal number of eggs in a single host. Oecologia 68, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, A.D. (1988) Host effects on larval competition in the gregarious parasitoid Bracon hebetor. Journal of Animal Ecology 57, 163–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vet, L.E.M., Datema, A., Janssen, A. & Snellen, H. (1994) Clutch size in a larval-pupal endoparasitoid: consequences for fitness. Journal of Animal Ecology 63, 807–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinson, S.B. (1988) Physiological studies of parasitoids reveal new approaches to the biological control of insect pests. ISI Atlas of Science 1, 25–32.Google Scholar
Vinson, S.B. & Iwantsch, G.F. (1980) Host suitability for insect parasitoids. Annual Review of Entomology 25, 397–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waage, J.K. & Ng, S.M. (1984) The reproductive strategy of a parasitic wasp. I. Optimal progeny allocation in Trichogramma evanescens. Journal of Animal Ecology 53, 401–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werren, J.H. (1984) A model for sex ratio selection in parasitic wasps: local mate competition and host quality effects. Netherlands Journal of Zoology 34, 81–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar