During evolution, certain endoparasitoid wasps have developed mechanisms to suppress the defence systems of their hosts. For this purpose, these species, all of which belong to the families Ichneumonidae and Braconidae, inject various kinds of virus-like particles. The most studied of these particles are classified as polydnaviruses (family Polydnaviridae) which are symbiotic viruses. Over the ...

in 2013, we launched a project to collect and identify the insects, which were associated with the pistachio gall aphid species forda hirsuta mordv. and slavum mordvilovi kreutz in tang-shekan region of the city of arsanjan in the province of fars. we collected the ichneumonid wasp aneuclis melanaria (holmgren) of the subfamily tersilochinae on the aphid populations of s. mordvilovi. this paras...

The light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana is a key pest of wine grapes in Australia. Two parasitoids, Dolichogenidea tasmanica and Therophilus unimaculatus, attack the larval stage of this pest. D. tasmanica is dominant in vineyards, whereas T. unimaculatus is mainly active in native vegetation. We sought to understand why they differ in their use of habitats. Plants are a major componen...

Parasitoid wasps produce virulence factors that bear significant resemblance to viruses and have the ability to block host defense responses. The function of these virulence factors, produced predominantly in wasp venom glands, and the ways in which they interfere with host development and physiology remain mysterious. Here, we report the discovery of a specialized system of canals in venom gla...

1. Numerous studies have reported the effects of learning or experience on parasitoid host preference and location. However, the integration of pre-imaginal and adult experiences on the subsequent host preference and adult/offspring performance has been rarely tested in host–parasite interactions. 2. We present direct evidence that theses two kinds of experiences affect host preference and rela...

Parasitoid wasps of the order Hymenoptera, the most diverse groups of animals, are important natural enemies of arthropod hosts in natural ecosystems and can be used in biological control. To date, only one neuropeptidome of a parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, has been identified. This study aimed to identify more neuropeptides of parasitoid wasps, by using a well-established workflow that ...

introduction: lysiphlebus fabarum marshall (hymenoptera: braconidae: aphidiinae) is a common aphidiine parasitoid in central europe, where it attacks more than 70 species of aphids. although both unisexual (thelytokous) and bisexual (arrhenotokous) strains of l. fabarum have been reported in iran, the former appear to be more widely distributed. aphid control in iran relies heavily on pesticide...

--I examined aspects of Charnov et al.'s (1981) host-size model for the parasitoid wasp Spalangia cameroni, using collections of fly pupae (hosts) from a poultry house. The model predicts that female parasitoid wasps should emerge from larger hosts than males. This prediction was supported for two collection dates in which only one host species, house flies, was parasitized by S. cameroni. The ...

Classical biological control is often advocated as a tool for managing invasive species. However, accurate evaluations of parasitoid species complexes and assessment of host specificity are impeded by the lack of morphological variation. Here, we study the possibility of host races/species within the eulophid wasp Pediobius saulius, a pupal generalist parasitoid that parasitize the highly invas...