Predators as diverse as snakes, scorpions, spiders, insects and snails manufacture venoms to incapacitate their prey. Most venoms contain a cocktail of neurotoxins and each neurotoxin is designed to target specific receptors in the nervous and muscular systems. Most neurotoxins act peripherally and interfere with the ability of the prey's nervous system to generate muscle contraction or relaxat...

Abstract Background This study was conducted to investigate life table characteristics of the parasitoid species, Goniozus legneri Gordh (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), a major gregarious larval ecto-parasitoids carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae Zeller (Lep.: Pyralidae). Demographic parameters G. reared on two hosts, moth and flour Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), were studied...

Host manipulation by parasites not only captures the imagination but has important epidemiological implications. The conventional view is that parasites face a trade-off between the benefits of host manipulation and their costs to fitness-related traits, such as longevity and fecundity. However, this trade-off hypothesis remains to be tested. Dinocampus coccinellae is a common parasitic wasp of...

The parasitoid wasp, Eretmocerus delhiensis (Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae) is a thelytokous and syn-ovigenic parasitoid. To evaluate E. delhiensis as a biocontrol agent in greenhouse, the killing efficiency of this parasitoid by parasitism and host-feeding, were studied. Killing efficiency can be compared by estimation of functional response parameters. Laboratory experiments were performed in cont...

UNLABELLED Insects commonly harbor facultative bacterial endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia and Spiroplasma species, that are vertically transmitted from mothers to their offspring. These endosymbiontic bacteria increase their propagation by manipulating host reproduction or by protecting their hosts against natural enemies. While an increasing number of studies have reported endosymbiont-mediate...

Insect parasitoids must complete part of their life cycle within or on another insect, ultimately resulting in the death of the host insect. One group of parasitoid wasps, the 'microgastroid complex' (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), engage in an association with beneficial symbiotic viruses that are essential for successful parasitism of hosts. These viruses, known as Bracoviruses, persist in an inte...

Endosymbiotic bacteria in the genus Wolbachia have been linked to several types of reproductive parasitism, which enhance their own transmission, while their direct effects on the host vary from beneficial to neutral or detrimental. Here, we report negative effects of infection on immunity-related traits of Drosophila simulans and the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina heterotoma. Infected D. simulans...

Millions of years of co-evolution have driven parasites to display very complex and exquisite strategies to manipulate the behaviour of their hosts. However, although parasite-induced behavioural manipulation is a widespread phenomenon, the underlying neuronal mechanisms are only now beginning to be deciphered. Here, we review recent advancements in the study of the mechanisms by which parasito...

Current knowledge about polysphinctine parasite wasps' interactions with their spider hosts is very fragmented and incomplete. This study presents the host specificity of Zatypota percontatoria (Müller) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) and its adaptation to varying host availability. Two years of field observations show that Z. percontatoria is a stenophagous parasitoid that parasitizes only five c...

Parasitoid diversity in terrestrial ecosystems is enormous. However, ecological processes underpinning their evolutionary diversification in association with other trophic groups are still unclear. Specialisation and interdependencies among chalcid wasps that reproduce on Ficus presents an opportunity to investigate the ecology of a multi-trophic system that includes parasitoids. Here we estima...