Factors Regulating Host Development in Parasitoid Wasps.

Neuroethology of Parasitoid Wasps

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...

Molecular analysis of parasitoid linkages (MAPL): gut contents of adult parasitoid wasps reveal larval host.

Metamorphosing insects often have complex and poorly known life histories. In particular, what they feed on during their larval stages remains unknown for the vast majority of species, and its documentation only results from difficult and time-intensive field observations, rearing or dissections. Through the application of a DNA analysis of gut contents in adult parasitoid wasps, we were able t...

The evolution of polyembryony in parasitoid wasps.

Polyembryony has evolved independently in four families of parasitoid wasps. We review three main hypotheses for the selective forces favouring this developmental mode in parasitoids: polyembryony (i) reduces the costs of egg limitation; (ii) reduces the genetic conflict among offspring; and (iii) allows offspring to adjust their numbers to the quality of the host. Using comparative data and ve...

The evolution of gregariousness in parasitoid wasps

Natural History of Tropical Parasitoid Wasps

The order Hymenoptera currently includes the impressive number of more than 115000 known species. The tropical hymenopteran fauna, however, is poorly known and this number probably represents just a small fraction of the real richness of the group. A great part of the species within Hymenoptera is composed of parasitoids, animals that exploit other organisms to death in order to acquire the foo...