Gao Shangkun, Tang Yanlong, Wei Ke, Wang Xiaoyi, Yang Zhongqi, Zhang Yanlong
Key Laboratory of Forest Protection, China State Forestry Administration; Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2016 Jul 1;11(7):e0156831. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156831. eCollection 2016.
The relationship between body size and fitness in parasitoid wasps has several effects on parasitic ability, reproductive behavior in female wasps, and progeny fitness. Female wasps with various body sizes were obtained by mass-rearing a gregarious ectoparasitoid, Sclerodermus pupariae, which is one of the excellent parasites to control the larvae and pupae of Buprestidae and Cerambycidae. We investigated the effects of body size of adult females introduced on Thyestilla gebleri (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) larvae on their paralysis time, pre-oviposition period, oviposition period and fecundity, and the related fitness of their offspring. Results showed that small female wasps needed more time to paralyze a host and had a higher mortality rate than large female wasps. More offspring were produced by large female wasps than by small female wasps, and the percentage and body size of female offspring was not affected by maternal body size. The duration of the egg stage was not affected by foundress size, nor was that of the pupal stage, but the duration of the larval stage and generation time of small female wasps was longer than that of large females. Our findings suggest that the parasitic fitness and offspring performance are affected by maternal size, and there is need to choose reasonable body size of female wasps, to optimally utilize mass rearing and to control target pests with the lowest mortality cost.
寄生蜂的体型与适合度之间的关系对其寄生能力、雌蜂的生殖行为以及子代适合度具有多种影响。通过大量饲养群居性外寄生蜂黄胸硬皮肿腿蜂来获得不同体型的雌蜂，黄胸硬皮肿腿蜂是控制吉丁甲科和天牛科幼虫和蛹的优良寄生蜂之一。我们研究了引入的成年雌蜂体型对光肩星天牛（鞘翅目：天牛科）幼虫的麻痹时间、产卵前期、产卵期和繁殖力的影响，以及其子代的相关适合度。结果表明，小型雌蜂麻痹寄主所需时间比大型雌蜂长，且死亡率更高。大型雌蜂比小型雌蜂产生的后代更多，子代雌蜂的百分比和体型不受母体体型的影响。卵期持续时间不受雌蜂体型影响，蛹期也不受影响，但小型雌蜂的幼虫期持续时间和世代时间比大型雌蜂长。我们的研究结果表明，寄生适合度和子代表现受母体体型影响，需要选择合理体型的雌蜂，以最佳地利用大量饲养并以最低的死亡成本控制目标害虫。
