Some parasites have an ability to fabricate the behavior of their host and impel the host to guard parasites' offspring, which is popularly called as bodyguard manipulation. Psalis pennatula larva parasitized by a braconid parasitoid wasp Microplitis pennatula exhibits some behavioral changes including the guarding of the parasitoid pupa from its natural enemies. We hypothesized that these beha...

Bracoviruses associate symbiotically with thousands of parasitoid wasp species in the family Braconidae, working as virulence gene vectors, and allowing the development of wasp larvae within hosts. These viruses are composed of multiple DNA circles that are packaged into infective particles, and injected together with wasp's eggs during parasitization. One of the viral segments of Cotesia vesta...

We show here that 105 regions in two Lepidoptera genomes appear to derive from horizontally transferred wasp DNA. We experimentally verified the presence of two of these sequences in a diverse set of silkworm (Bombyx mori) genomes. We hypothesize that these horizontal transfers are made possible by the unusual strategy many parasitoid wasps employ of injecting hosts with endosymbiotic polydnavi...

In this paper, we analyze the polymorphisms of parasitoid wasp polydnavirus. The polydnavius genome is normally dormant within the genome of the wasp, but is converted into particles that are injected into the infected host along with the wasp eggs. These particles contain genes which inhibit the immune system of the infected host, and are necessary for the eggs to mature. Within a population, ...

Foreign objects that enter the hemocoel of Drosophila melanogaster larvae are encapsulated by one type of blood cell, the lamellocyte, yet eggs of the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina heterotoma remain unencapsulated in D. melanogaster larval hosts that have many lamellocytes. Here we demonstrate that shortly after a female wasp oviposits in the hemocoel the lamellocytes undergo morphological change...

Theory predicts that intraguild consumers such as predators or parasitoids may displace more specialized heterospecific competitors and thereby actually increase the population densities of a shared host or prey. We tested this idea with a native primary parasitoid, Eretmocerus eremicus, and an exotic autoparasitoid Encarsia sophia, both attacking the sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Autopa...

Behavioral tactics play a crucial role in the evolution of species and are likely to be found in host-parasitoid interactions where host quality may differ between host developmental stages. We investigated foraging decisions, parasitism and related fitness in a gregarious ectoparasitoid, Sclerodermus harmandi in relation to two distinct host developmental stages: larvae and pupae. Two colonies...

The parasitoid Prorops nasutaWaterston (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) is a wasp of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). In this study, the attractiveness of different volatiles to P. nasuta was studied in the laboratory using a Y-tube olfactometer. Female wasps were attracted to coffee berry borer-infested coffee berries but not to uninfested or artiÞcia...

Little is known of the fate of viruses involved in long-term obligatory associations with eukaryotes. For example, many species of parasitoid wasps have symbiotic viruses to manipulate host defenses and to allow development of parasitoid larvae. The complete nucleotide sequence of the DNA enclosed in the virus particles injected by a parasitoid wasp revealed a complex organization, resembling a...

Optimal foraging theory, specifically the marginal value theorem, predicts quicker leaving (shorter residence time) from poorer patches. One proximal mechanism for achieving the leaving is that exposure to lower-quality resources may trigger increased restlessness (proportion of time in locomotion). Which aspects of host quality, if any, affect restlessness was examined in females of the parasi...