Registered users receive a variety of benefits including the ability to customize email alerts, create favorite journals list, and save searches.
Please note that a BioOne web account does not automatically grant access to full-text content. An institutional or society member subscription is required to view non-Open Access content.
Contact helpdesk@bioone.org with any questions.
Many adult parasitoids feed on host insects, a behavior known as host-feeding. Feeding on hosts is essential to maximizing female fecundity, but its contribution to reproduction varies from species to species. The relationship between fecundity and host-feeding was examined in the solitary endoparasitoid wasp Itoplectis naranyae Ashmead, (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) to assess the significance of host-feeding in female reproduction. Adult female wasps did not respond to hosts when they were 0–1 days old, but subsequently increased their oviposition and host-feeding activities with increasing female age. While newly emerging females had no mature eggs in their ovary, the number of mature eggs increased rapidly thereafter, a process termed synovigeny. Female wasps were capable of maturing eggs without host-feeding, and this suggested that they produced a certain portion of eggs from nutritional reserves that had been stored during the larval stage. Behavioral observations revealed that I. naranyae was a destructive host-feeder as the host was damaged during feeding. Female fecundity was greater in females that had previously fed on hosts than those did not, indicating that host-feeding was involved in egg production. There was a time-delayed relation between host-feeding events and additional egg production; at least 3 days were required to mature eggs from nutrients gained via feeding on hosts. The significance of host-feeding in I. naranyae reproduction is discussed in the context of its life history traits.
This article is only available to subscribers. It is not available for individual sale.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have
purchased or subscribe to this BioOne eBook Collection. You are receiving
this notice because your organization may not have this eBook access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users-please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
Additional information about institution subscriptions can be foundhere