Hyperparasitism in a Generalist Ectoparasitic Pupal Parasitoid, Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), on Its Own Conspecifics: When the Lack of Resource Lead to Cannibalism

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 24;10(4):e0124305. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124305. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Hyperparasitism is a normal behavior of parasitoids, which often happens among species. Conspecific hyperparasitism, such as some kinds of heteronomous hyperparasitic behaviors, has been only reported in some species belonging to Aphelinidae. In this article, the conspecific hyperparasitism of Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae (Pteromalidae) is reported, with Drosophila puparia as hosts. Hosts were exposed to P. vindemmiae females twice to parasitism with nine, twelve, and fifteen day intervals between the two exposures. None of the infested hosts emerged more than one offspring, and emergence of parasitoid offspring occurred in two obvious events, synchronously with the exposure time intervals, which suggested that offspring emerging during the first and second events would come from the primary and secondary parasitoids, respectively, and the inference with the developmental duration of offspring also indicated this. With two P. vindemmiae strains that could be identified by a simple sequence repeat marker, the above speculation of the origin of those offspring emerging during the two events was confirmed. Dissection of hosts exposed twice revealed a cannibalism behavior of larvae from the secondary foundresses on the primary conspecific pupae. Our results suggested a conspecific hyperparasitism behavior of the secondary parasitoids on the primary conspecifics. Measures showed a reduced body size for the adults from the conspecific hyperparasitism. Foundresses from the conspecific hyperparasitism had less fitness variables than those from primary parasitism, with shorter longevity, less life time fecundity, lower values of infestation degree, and lower success rate of parasitism. However, when the parasitoids from the conspecific hyperparasitism met healthy Drosophila puparia, their offspring would recover to normal size. Frequency of the conspecific hyperparasitism behavior enhanced with the decreasing of proportion of healthy hosts in the oviposition patch. The conspecific hyperparasitism of P. vindemmiae on the primary conspecifics would be helpful to last the population when healthy hosts are absent in the oviposition patch.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Body Size
  • Cannibalism*
  • Female
  • Host-Parasite Interactions
  • Male
  • Pupa*
  • Wasps / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31172145), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20113424120005), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (1408085MKL24), and the Provincial Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization for Important Biological Resource in Anhui Province.