Extremely female-biased sex ratio and lethal male-male combat in a parasitoid wasp, Melittobia australica (Eulophidae)

Abe, Jun; Kamimura, Yoshitaka; Kondo, Norihiko; Shimada, Muneaki

doi:10.1093/beheco/14.1.34

Cited by 64 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…We have confirmed that the result remains true in the generalized models. Most of our results are consistent with experimental data in Melittobia wasps (Abe et al, 2003a(Abe et al, , 2005. Observed emergence patterns show that males emerge earlier than females on average.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…However, in superparasitism in the field, there must be asymmetry in the order by which a foundress finds a host and starts laying eggs. Moreover, an experiment on male-male combat in the Melittobia wasp shows that the order of emergence plays an important role for males, i.e., preexisting males almost always kill a newly emerged male (Abe et al, 2003a). In such an asymmetric game, the optimal behavior could be different from our result, which would be studied in future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…also changes the optimal sex ratio slightly (Frank, 1985;Nishimura, 1993;Courteau and Lessard, 1999). Despite all these theoretical predictions, extraordinarily small sex ratios (less than 5%) are observed in LMC in Melittobia wasps even when multiple foundresses parasitize a host (Abe et al, 2003a;Cooperband et al, 2003). When the group size (the number of foundresses) is variable, the sex ratio is predicted to be very female-biased when the average group size is close to one (Nunney and Luck, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: The optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Wakano

2005

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: The optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Wakano

2005

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…Fialho & Stevens (1997) also found Wolbachia from M. digitata to fall only within supergroup A. Recently, Wolbachia has also been reported from M. australica (Abe et al 2003) but no supergroup was assigned. Thus, it appears that different populations of Melittobia might be capable of harboring phylogenetically distinct populations of Wolbachia, suggesting that these infections might have occurred relatively recently in evolutionary time.…”

Section: Melittobia Digitata U02950mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wolbachia in two populations of Melittobia digitata Dahms (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

Copeland

Matthews²,

González³

et al. 2008

Neotrop. entomol.

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Neotropical Entomology 37(6): 633-640 (2008) Wolbachia en Dos Poblaciones de Melittobia digitata Dahms (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) RESUMEN -Se investigaron dos poblaciones de Melittobia digitata Dahms, un parasitoide gregario (principalmente sobre un rango amplio de abejas solitarias, avispas y moscas), en busca de infección por Wolbachia. La primera población, provenía de Xalapa, México, y fue originalmente colectada y criada sobre pupas de la Mosca Mexicana de la Fruta, Anastrepha ludens Loew (Diptera: Tephritidae). La segunda población, originaria de Athens, Georgia, fue colectada y criada sobre prepupas de avispas de barro, Trypoxylon politum Say (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae). Estudios de PCR de la región ITS2 confi rmaron que ambas poblaciones del parasitoide pertenecen a la misma especie; lo que nos provee de un perfi l molecular taxonómico muy útil debído a que las hembras de las diversas especies de Melittobia son superfi cialmente similares. La amplifi cación del gen de superfi cie de proteina (wsp) de Wolbachia confi rmó la presencia de este endosimbionte en ambas poblaciones. La ejecución de la secuencia reveló que Wolbachia alojada en ambas poblaciones exibe un wsp que pertenece a un subgrupo único (denominado aquí como Dig) dentro del supergrupo B de los genes wsp conocidos. Este nuevo subgrupo de wsp podría pertenecer o a un lineaje de Wolbachia de los previamente conocidos infectando a Melittobia o podría ser el resultado de algún evento recombinante. En cualquier caso, los huéspedes conocidos de Wolbachia con un wsp en este subgrupo están relacionados taxonómicamente en forma lejana. Se presentan razones posibles del por qué Melittobia -un parasitoide fácil de criar y manipular -es prometedor como un organismo modelo conveniente para el estudio de líneas de Wolbachia entre diversos huéspedes.PALABRAS CLAVE: Parasitoide, chalcidoide, endosimbionte, transmisión horizontal ABSTRACT -We investigated two populations of Melittobia digitata Dahms, a gregarious parasitoid (primarily upon a wide range of solitary bees, wasps, and fl ies), in search of Wolbachia infection. The fi rst population, from Xalapa, Mexico, was originally collected from and reared on Mexican fruit fl y pupae, Anastrepha ludens Loew (Diptera: Tephritidae); the other, from Athens, Georgia, was collected from and reared on prepupae of mud dauber wasps, Trypoxylon politum Say (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae). PCR studies of the ITS2 region corroborated that both parasitoid populations were the same species; this potentially provides a useful molecular taxonomic profi le since females of Melittobia species are superfi cially similar. Amplifi cation of the Wolbachia surface protein gene (wsp) confi rmed the presence of this endosymbiont in both populations. Sequencing revealed that the Wolbachia harbored in both populations exhibited a wsp belonging to a unique subgroup (denoted here as Dig) within the B-supergroup of known wsp genes. This new subgroup of wsp may either belong to a different strain of Wolbachia from those previously found to in...

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“…Maynard Smith & Price 1973), males of several parasitoid wasps, fig wasps and ants with LMC regularly engage in lethal combat because opportunities for mating outside their natal patch are rare (e.g. Kinomura & Yamauchi 1987;Stuart et al 1987;Cook et al 1999;Abe et al 2003;Innocent et al 2007). Because older males have a heavily sclerotized cuticle they can safely eliminate younger rivals, whose cuticle is still soft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants

et al. 2008

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Wingless males of the ant genus Cardiocondyla engage in fatal fighting for access to female sexual nestmates. Older, heavily sclerotized males are usually capable of eliminating all younger rivals, whose cuticle is still soft. In Cardiocondyla sp. A, this type of local mate competition (LMC) has turned the standard pattern of brood production of social insects upside down, in that mother queens in multi-queen colonies produce extremely long-lived sons very early in the life cycle of the colony. Here, we investigated the emergence pattern of sexuals in two species with LMC, in which males are much less long-lived. Queens of Cardiocondyla obscurior and Cardiocondyla minutior reared their first sons significantly earlier in multi-queen than in single-queen societies. In addition, first female sexuals also emerged earlier in multi-queen colonies, so that early males had mating opportunities. Hence, the timing of sexual production appears to be well predicted by evolutionary theory, in particular by local mate and queen–queen competition.

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Extremely female-biased sex ratio and lethal male-male combat in a parasitoid wasp, Melittobia australica (Eulophidae)

Cited by 64 publications

References 37 publications

Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: The optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: The optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Wolbachia in two populations of Melittobia digitata Dahms (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

Queen number influences the timing of the sexual production in colonies of Cardiocondyla ants

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