Mutualism: Wasp Keeps Watchdogs to Protect Young

نویسنده

  • Daniel J.C. Kronauer
چکیده

The adaptive value of acarinaria - specialized structures in some wasps and bees that harbour symbiotic mites - has long been elusive. A new study has now shown that the mites are actually beneficial to their host by actively defending it against parasitoids.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Asymmetric interaction and indeterminate fitness correlation between cooperative partners in the fig–fig wasp mutualism

Empirical observations have shown that cooperative partners can compete for common resources, but what factors determine whether partners cooperate or compete remain unclear. Using the reciprocal fig-fig wasp mutualism, we show that nonlinear amplification of interference competition between fig wasps-which limits the fig wasps' ability to use a common resource (i.e. female flowers)-keeps the c...

متن کامل

Critical review of host specificity and its coevolutionary implications in the fig/fig-wasp mutualism.

Figs (Ficus spp., Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Agaonidae, Chalcidoidea) constitute perhaps the most tightly integrated pollination mutualism that is known. Figs are characterized by extraordinarily high global and local species diversity. It has been proposed that the diversification of this mutualism has occurred through strict-sense coadaptation and cospeciation between pairs of fig...

متن کامل

Ecology of parasite Sycophilomorpha sp. on Ficus altissima and its effect on the fig-fig wasp mutualism.

Figs and their pollinating wasps are a classic example of an obligate mutualism. In addition, figs are parasitized by a suite of non-mutualistic wasps whose basic ecology is largely undescribed. Sycophilomorpha (subfamily Epichrysomallinae) fig wasps are ovule gallers and the genus contains only 1 described species. An undescribed Sycophilomorpha species parasitized Ficus altissima at Xishuangb...

متن کامل

Interference Competition and High Temperatures Reduce the Virulence of Fig Wasps and Stabilize a Fig-Wasp Mutualism

Fig trees are pollinated by fig wasps, which also oviposit in female flowers. The wasp larvae gall and eat developing seeds. Although fig trees benefit from allowing wasps to oviposit, because the wasp offspring disperse pollen, figs must prevent wasps from ovipositing in all flowers, or seed production would cease, and the mutualism would go extinct. In Ficus racemosa, we find that syconia ('f...

متن کامل

Host sanctions and pollinator cheating in the fig tree-fig wasp mutualism.

Theory predicts that mutualisms should be vulnerable to invasion by cheaters, yet mutualistic interactions are both ancient and diverse. What prevents one partner from reaping the benefits of the interaction without paying the costs? Using field experiments and observations, we examined factors affecting mutualism stability in six fig tree-fig wasp species pairs. We experimentally compared the ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Current Biology

دوره 18  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2008