Coccinellid host morphology dictates morphological diversity of the parasitoid wasp Dinocampus coccinellae

•Quantified the effect of six species of coccinellid beetle hosts on the morphology of newly eclosed parasitoid wasps, Dinocampus coccinellae.•Directional cline in morphology of wasps and their hosts was observed in a dry-weight regression.•Smallest lady beetle host Hippodamia parenthesis produced t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological control 2019-06, Vol.133, p.110-116
Main Authors: Vansant, Hannah, Vasquez, Yumary M., Obrycki, John J., Sethuraman, Arun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coccinellid beetles
Host-specificity
Morphometrics
Parasitoid wasps
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Quantified the effect of six species of coccinellid beetle hosts on the morphology of newly eclosed parasitoid wasps, Dinocampus coccinellae.•Directional cline in morphology of wasps and their hosts was observed in a dry-weight regression.•Smallest lady beetle host Hippodamia parenthesis produced the smallest wasps; largest host species, Coccinella septempunctata, produced the largest wasps.•This is indicative of phenotypic plasticity, or adaptive evolution of D. coccinellae to their beetle host. Pararsitoid-host interactions involving host species that are newly introduced into the range of a generalist parasitoid provide systems that can be examined for phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary changes in parasitoid-host dynamics. The solitary Braconid parasitoid wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae, has a cosmopolitan distribution and parasitizes approximately 50 species of predatory lady beetles (ladybirds) in the family Coccinellidae. In this study we quantified the effect of six (4 native North American and 2 non-native North American) host species on the morphometrics of D. coccinellae. Adult lady beetles were collected from 13 locations in the United States and reared in the laboratory until D. coccinellae exited from their adult beetle hosts. Eighty-nine individual D. coccinellae females and their associated host were weighed and morphometric measurements were taken. The smallest lady beetle host Hippodamia parenthesis produced the smallest adult wasps; the largest host species, Coccinella septempunctata, produced the largest female wasps. A directional cline in morphology of wasps and their coccinellid hosts was also observed in a dry-weight regression (R2 = 0.4066, p-value 
ISSN:1049-9644
1090-2112
DOI:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2019.02.015