Aphidius ervi (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) Increases Its Adult Size by Disrupting Host Wing Development

The parasitoid wasp Aphidius ervi (Haliday) disrupts formation of wings by its host, the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris). Because apterous aphids are larger than alates, we hypothesized that blocking wing formation leads to larger parasitoids emerging from apterous hosts. In an initial exper...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental entomology 2004-12, Vol.33 (6), p.1523-1527
Main Authors: Demmon, Andrea S, Nelson, Heidi J, Ryan, Patricia J, Ives, Anthony R, Snyder, William E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acyrthosiphon pisum
alate vs. apterous hosts
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
aphid
Aphidius ervi
Aphidoidea
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
body size
body weight
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
host modification
host-parasite relationships
host–parasitoid interactions
insect development
morphogenesis
morphs
parasitoid fitness
parasitoids
PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY
Protozoa. Invertebrata
wing formation
wings
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Summary:The parasitoid wasp Aphidius ervi (Haliday) disrupts formation of wings by its host, the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris). Because apterous aphids are larger than alates, we hypothesized that blocking wing formation leads to larger parasitoids emerging from apterous hosts. In an initial experiment, we found that parasitoid larvae could not always prevent host wing formation when the parasitoid began development in fourth instar hosts, allowing us to experimentally test the hypothesis. Both male and female parasitoids emerging from hosts that did not develop wings were heavier than those emerging from alate hosts. Parasitoids emerging from apterous mummies also had significantly longer thoraxes. For insect parasitoids, increasing size has been positively correlated with several measures of fitness. Thus, A. ervi likely gains a fitness advantage by disrupting host wing development.
ISSN:0046-225X
1938-2936
0046-225X
DOI:10.1603/0046-225X-33.6.1523