Mohan Prabitha, Sinu Palatty Allesh
Department of Animal Science, Central University of Kerala, Kasargod, Kerala, India.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Jun 21;12(6):e0178108. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178108. eCollection 2017.
Some parasites have an ability to fabricate the behavior of their host and impel the host to guard parasites' offspring, which is popularly called as bodyguard manipulation. Psalis pennatula larva parasitized by a braconid parasitoid wasp Microplitis pennatula exhibits some behavioral changes including the guarding of the parasitoid pupa from its natural enemies. We hypothesized that these behavioral change exhibited by the parasitized host larva are induced by the parasitoid and can be considered as an example of bodyguard manipulation. Even though hyperparasitoids are the more specialized natural enemy of parasitoids than predators, very few studies tested the success of guarding parasitoid pupa against hyperparasitoids. This study analyzed the success of guarding behavior of the parasitized host against hyperparasitoids. The onsets of parasite-induced phenotypic alterations (PIPAs) in the parasitized host were inspected to analyze whether these behavioral changes in the host larva manifests gradually or abruptly. The study concludes that parasitized host larva defends the parasitoid pupa from hyperparasitoids and the PIPAs in the parasitized host develops abruptly only after the egression of parasitoid prepupa.
一些寄生虫能够操控宿主的行为，驱使宿主保护寄生虫的后代，这一现象通常被称为保镖操纵。被茧蜂科寄生蜂扁股小蜂寄生的扁股蛾幼虫会表现出一些行为变化，包括保护寄生蜂蛹免受天敌侵害。我们推测，被寄生的宿主幼虫所表现出的这些行为变化是由寄生蜂诱导的，可被视为保镖操纵的一个例子。尽管重寄生蜂是比捕食者更专门化的寄生蜂天敌，但很少有研究测试保护寄生蜂蛹免受重寄生蜂侵害的成功率。本研究分析了被寄生宿主针对重寄生蜂的保护行为的成功率。检查了被寄生宿主中寄生虫诱导的表型改变（PIPA）的起始情况，以分析宿主幼虫的这些行为变化是逐渐还是突然出现的。研究得出结论，被寄生的宿主幼虫会保护寄生蜂蛹免受重寄生蜂侵害，且被寄生宿主中的PIPA仅在寄生蜂预蛹逸出后才突然出现。
