Tachinid parasitoids: are they to be considered as koinobionts?

Tachinids are usually considered as koinobionts as none of them kills or paralyzes the host when first entering it. These parasitoids, however, do not fit well into the koinobiont/idiobiont dichotomy because only some species show a high degree of physiological adaptation to the host, whereas the la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BioControl (Dordrecht, Netherlands) Netherlands), 2011-06, Vol.56 (3), p.249-255
Main Author: Dindo, Maria Luisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptations
Adequacy
Agriculture
Animal Biochemistry
Animal Ecology
Behavioral Sciences
Biological control
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Classification
Culture media
Development
Eggs
Entomology
Females
Forum Paper
Hormones
Immune system
Insects
Larvae
Life Sciences
Media (culture)
Parasitoids
Physiology
Plant Pathology
Respiration
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Summary:Tachinids are usually considered as koinobionts as none of them kills or paralyzes the host when first entering it. These parasitoids, however, do not fit well into the koinobiont/idiobiont dichotomy because only some species show a high degree of physiological adaptation to the host, whereas the larvae of other species grow quickly following attack and kill the host rapidly, thus behaving more as idiobionts. The in vitro rearing technique provides further evidence for the poor adequacy of the koinobiont/idiobiont dichotomy for tachinids. In fact, while typical koinobionts are known to be difficult to culture on artificial media, some tachinids displaying non-synchronized development with the host have been successfully reared in vitro on insect material-free artificial media, thus behaving similarly to idiobionts. I therefore suggest not to use the koinobiont/idiobiont classification for tachinids and to class them instead only on the basis of the presence or absence of developmental synchrony with their hosts.
ISSN:1386-6141
1573-8248
DOI:10.1007/s10526-010-9338-2