Facultative hyperparasitism: Extreme survival behaviour of the primary solitary ectoparasitoid, Dinarmus basalis
Institut de Recherches sur la Biologie de l’Insecte, UMR CNRS 6035, Faculté des Sciences,
37200 Tours, France
Abstract
This study investigated the egg-laying behaviour of ectoparsitoid, Dinarmus basalis Rondani (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), females when faced with a prolonged deprivation of suitable hosts leading to extreme ‘oviposition pressure’. The egg-laying behaviour of virgin D. basalis females was tested with Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) hosts previously parasitized by the conspecific females in which the developing larvae had reached the last larval instar (L5) or pupae. The hyperparasitism did not prevent the occurrence of superparasitism, but only one D. basalis egg from a hyperparasitized D. basalis L5 larvae reached the adult stage due to the solitary behaviour of the D. basalis larvae. Under these experimental conditions, 60.78% of the D. basalis adults emerging from larvae were miniaturized due to the depletion of host resources.
Keywords: Callosobruchus maculatus, Eupelmus vuilleti, Eupelmus orientalis, Vigna unguiculata, Bruchidae, intraspecific and interspecific discrimination, intraspecific competition, cleptoparasitic behaviour
Correspondence:
daniellerousse@wanadoo.fr
Associate Editor: Robert Jeanne was editor of this paper.
Received: 22 August 2008 | Accepted: 24 May 2010 | Published: 9 July 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 101
Rojas-Rousse D. 2010. Facultative hyperparasitism: Extreme survival behaviour of the primary solitary ectoparasitoid, Dinarmus basalis. Journal of Insect Science 10:101, available online: insectscience.org/10.101
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