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Regulation of host diapause by an insect parasitoid
Author(s) -
MOORE SANDRA D.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1989.tb00758.x
Subject(s) - biology , parasitoid , diapause , instar , nymphalidae , parasitism , population , larva , overwintering , zoology , host (biology) , insect , ecology , butterfly , demography , sociology
. 1. The interaction between larval development and parasitism by the braconid wasp Cotesia koebelei (Riley), was investigated in a population of the butterfly Euphydryas editha (Boisduval) (Nymphalidae). In this population, the butterfly host has an obligatory overwintering larval diapause. 2. It was found that E. editha larvae harbouring parasitoids were more likely to pass through an extra feeding instar before entering diapause than were non‐parasitized conspecifics. 3. In addition, some individuals that were experimentally exposed to multiple parasitoid attacks bypassed diapause completely; these larvae passed through five or six feeding instars, reaching sizes typical of final instar post‐diapause larvae. 4. The observed effect of superparasitism occurred regardless of whether the host larvae subsequently produced mature parasitoids, suggesting that parasitoid attack is sufficient to invoke the response. 5. It is proposed that the parasitoid C.koebelei regulates the number of pre‐diapause feeding instars of its insect host E. editha, and that some component of the female venom, injected at oviposition, is responsible for this regulation.