Learning can be detrimental for a parasitic wasp

Animals have evolved the capacity to learn, and the conventional view is that learning allows individuals to improve foraging decisions. The parasitoid Telenomus podisi has been shown to parasitize eggs of the exotic stink bug Halyomorpha halys at the same rate as eggs of its coevolved host, Podisus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-03, Vol.16 (3), p.e0238336
Main Authors: Bertoldi, Valeria, Rondoni, Gabriele, Peri, Ezio, Conti, Eric, Brodeur, Jacques
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal reproduction
Beans
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Chemical stimuli
Data analysis
Decision making
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Eggs
Environmental aspects
Females
Foraging habitats
Growth chambers
Habitat selection
Host-parasite relationships
Humidity
Insects
Laboratories
Learning
Learning behavior
Mate selection
Methodology
Natural history
Progeny
Relative humidity
Social Sciences
Stochastic processes
Stochasticity
Success
Wasps
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Summary:Animals have evolved the capacity to learn, and the conventional view is that learning allows individuals to improve foraging decisions. The parasitoid Telenomus podisi has been shown to parasitize eggs of the exotic stink bug Halyomorpha halys at the same rate as eggs of its coevolved host, Podisus maculiventris, but the parasitoid cannot complete its development in the exotic species. We hypothesized that T. podisi learns to exploit cues from this non-coevolved species, thereby increasing unsuccessful parasitism rates. We conducted bioassays to compare the responses of naïve vs. experienced parasitoids on chemical footprints left by one of the two host species. Both naïve and experienced females showed a higher response to footprints of P. maculiventris than of H. halys. Furthermore, parasitoids that gained an experience on H. halys significantly increased their residence time within the arena and the frequency of re-encounter with the area contaminated by chemical cues. Hence, our study describes detrimental learning where a parasitoid learns to associate chemical cues from an unsuitable host, potentially re-enforcing a reproductive cul-de-sac (evolutionary trap). Maladaptive learning in the T. podisi-H. halys association could have consequences for population dynamics of sympatric native and exotic host species.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0238336