Janice R. Matthews

Biology of the Parasitoid Melittobia (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)*

As parasitoids upon solitary bees and wasps and their nest cohabitants, Melittobia have an intricate life history that involves both female cooperation and variably expressed male siblicidal conflict. Inter- and intrasexual dimorphism includes blind, flightless males and (probably nutritionally determined) short- and long-winged females. Thought to be highly inbred, Melittobia do not conform to local mate competition (LMC) theory but exhibit simple forms of many social insect traits, including overlapping adult generations, different female phenotypes, close kinship ties, parental care, and altruistic cooperative escape behaviors. Most host records and research findings are based on only 3 species--M. acasta, M. australica, and M. digitata--but any of the 12 species could have pest potential due to their polyphagy, explosive population growth, cryptic habits, and behavioral plasticity. Readily cultured in the laboratory, Melittobia offer considerable potential as a model for genetic, developmental, and behavioral studies.

A SEX PHEROMONE IN MALES OF MELITTOBIA AUSTRALICA AND M. FEMORATA (HYMENOPTERA: EULOPHIDAE)

A 4-choice arena was used to test for evidence of a volatile male-produced attractant in macropterous and brachypterous forms of 2 closely related parasitic wasps, Melittobia australica Girault and M. femorata Dahms. Virgin females of both species and forms were strongly attracted to freshly killed mashed and intact males and to living males. They were unresponsive toward males which had been dead for at least 5 days and toward empty controls. Mated females were indifferent to males, regardless of male condition. Bioassays implicated the abdomen as the source of the male sex pheromone in both species.

Nesting Behavior of Abispa ephippium (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae): Extended Parental Care in an Australian Mason Wasp

The genus Abispa includes Australias largest wasps, potters with distinctive mud nests weighing up to 0.5 kg. During 31 days near Katherine, NT, Australia, we observed 8 active A. ephippium (Fabricius) nests and dissected 16. Nesting is lengthy and asynchronous; female generations often overlap. Females display long-term parental care through truncated progressive provisioning, removing debris, repairing damage, and attacking potential invaders. Males patrol water-gathering spots, and visit and associate with active nests, mating there and in flight. Females actively guard nests, but challenged nest-attending males simply retreat. The distinctive funnel-shaped entrance helps females defend nests physically but probably not chemically; dismantled for cell closure material, it is built anew for each cell. Nests contain up to 8 cells; construction and provisioning total about 7 days per cell. The only parasite was Stilbum cyanurum Forster. Thievery and nest usurpation by Pseudabispa paragioides (Meade-Waldo) were discovered.

Courtship and Mate Attraction in Parasitic Wasps

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the courtship and mate attraction in parasitic wasps particularly Melittobia digitata . Melittobia digitata are little parasitic wasps also known as WOWBugs. Their tiny stingers, used only to puncture hosts, cannot penetrate human flesh. Around the world, Melittobia raise their young upon the larvae and pupae of other insect species in several different orders, including bees and wasps, beeries, and flies. Melittobia males are highly aggressive toward one another, often battling to the death for the right to court and mate with their sisters inside the darkness of the host cocoon. Females—which make up over 95% of each generation—disperse after mating to undertake a hazardous journey to search for new hosts. Up to 700 mated females may emerge from a single host cocoon. Most will perish, but the lucky few find a new insect larva or pupa upon which to lay eggs. Within 17-24 days, these eggs will mature to adults able to breed and repeat the cycle.

Biological Notes On Three Species of Giant Australian Mason Wasps, Abispa (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae)

Abstract Seven nests of Abispa australiana (Mitchell) from Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, two nests of A. splendida splendida (Guérin-Méneville) from Magnetic Island National Park, Queensland, and one nest of A. meadewaldoensis Perkins from Kununurra, West Australia constitute the most extensive sample of Abispa nests yet reported. The isolated, cryptic, mud nests had thick walls (up to 16 mm), a downward-pointing, funnel-shaped entrance tube, and an exterior plastered with numerous small mud pellets that matched substrate color. All nests were affixed to firm surfaces in semi-sheltered positions; the nest of A. meadewaldoensis was in a crevice below ground. For A. australiana, the largest nest measured 15.6 cm long × 6.9 cm wide × 4.5 cm deep, and comprised seven cells; cell dimensions averaged 33.8 mm long × 13.9 mm diameter. Females of all species appear to specialize on a few species of small pyralid or gelechiid caterpillars, provisioning cells with up to 79 prey. All 88 prey recovered from three cells of two A. australiana nests proved to be a single species of gelechiid. Provisioning type appears to differ among the three species, with A. s. splendida practicing progressive provisioning and A. meadewaldoensis and A. australiana being mass provisioners. Parasitism levels were low, with only two of 21 cells in the seven active nests attacked by an unidentified chrysidid. Unidentified sarcophagid and bombyliid fly remains were found in three previously emerged old nests; in two of these, the thick mud walls prevented sarcophagids from escaping. Both sexes were present at two A. australiana nests and one A. s. splendida nest, suggesting a wait-at-the-nest mating tactic in addition to scramble competition at water sources and nest trap-lining previously reported for A. ephippium. Another A. australiana nest found with two associated females may have been communal.

I Walk the Line: A Popular Termite Activity Revisited

ABSTRACT Since 1968, biologists have known that termites line up and follow some ballpoint ink lines but not others. Suggestions for class lessons based on this observation have become widespread. However, many of these are incomplete, superficial, conflicting, and/or occasionally inaccurate, and most provide only simple demonstrations or cookbook-style confirmations. Here, we provide added background for this activity to update, clarify, and expand it. Some ways to use termite trail-following to teach fundamental life and physical science concepts through hands-on inquiry are presented, based on our experience with university students and teachers. These activities, adaptable to many instructional levels, range in scope from a single laboratory session to extended investigation.

Programming and Integrating Behavior

Lacewing males, Chrysoperla downesi, sit among the branches of an evergreen tree, softly drumming their abdomens against terminal twigs and needles in a long, complex pattern of volleys that attracts females. Moths of the black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon, fly by at recorded ground speeds of between 97 and113 km/h (60–70 mph). Foraging Cataglyphis ants scurry around upon the floor in the Sahara Desert at surface temperatures of up to 70°C (158°F), scavenging upon the corpses of insects and other arthropods that have succumbed to heat stress in this extreme environment.

The History and Scope of Insect Behavior

An overview of the insect world reveals two paradoxical characteristics: great diversity and equally great constancy. On the one hand, there are over one million named insect species, with estimates ranging up to three million. How can such a great diversity be explained? Study of this basic question has become the domain of evolutionary biology. On the other hand, each kind of organism tends to reoccur in virtually the same form with the same basic features for generation after generation. Why do they tend to show such constancy, such resistance to change? The study of this question, in turn, is largely the domain of genetics. Together, these two great branches of biology—evolution and genetics—form a powerful tool for the investigation of nearly every aspect of life. This introductory chapter deals briefly with their application to the study of behavior and then turns to an overview of behavior as a field of study to provide a perspective for the chapters that follow.

COMPARATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ABILITY OF DIBRACHYS PELOS (HYMENOPTERA: PTEROMALIDAE) ON VARIOUS POTENTIAL HOSTS

Abstract Dibrachys pelos (Grissell) is an occasional gregarious ectoparasitoid of Sceliphron caementarium (Drury). We report the second record of this host association, collected in western Nebraska, and present results of laboratory experiments on host suitability and utilization. When D. pelos was reared alone on prepupae of 6 possible hosts, 4 proved entirely suitable: the mud dauber wasps Sceliphron caementarium and Trypoxylon politum Say, and two of their parasitoids, a velvet ant, Sphaeropthalma pensylvanica (Lepeletier) and a bee fly, Anthraxsp. On these hosts D. pelos completed development in 2-4 weeks, with average clutch sizes of 33-57, of which 24.7% were males. The other two hosts tested, the flesh fly Neobellieria bullata (Parker) and the leaf-cutter bee Megachile rotundata (Say), proved marginal, with very few adult progeny produced. When reared on these same 6 hosts with the addition of a competing parasitoid, Melittobia digitata Dahms, D. pelos fared poorly, being the sole offspring producer in at most 30% of the trials (on Anthrax hosts) and failing to prevail at all on T. politum hosts. Comparative data on host conversion efficiency indicated that M. digitata was more efficient than D. pelos on every host except Anthrax.

Attend to punctuation, capitalization, and other mechanics

Writing the words “a woman without her man is nothing” on the chalkboard, the professor directed the students to punctuate it correctly. The men wrote “A woman, without her man, is nothing.” The women wrote “A woman: without her, man is nothing.” Punctuation is everything. unknown If effective scientific communication is like a well-designed and smoothly operating machine, then grammar – the accepted system of rules by which words are formed and put together to make sentences – forms the nuts and bolts that hold it all together. The individual fasteners of punctuation, capitalization, and such may seem simple and unexciting to look at, but they are undeniably important if the machine is to hold together and function properly. In this chapter, we suggest ways of avoiding and correcting some common mechanical mistakes that scientific writers tend to make. For further advice, style manuals of special utility for biomedical writers include the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010), the AMA Manual of Style (2007), and the Council of Science Editors’ Scientific Style and Format (2006). All are updated at intervals; be sure to check for the latest edition. Punctuate for clarity Punctuation has one purpose – to help the reader understand the structural relationship within (and thus the intention of) a sentence. For this reason, the best approach to punctuation is almost always the simplest. Punctuation should be almost automatic. If you are puzzled over how to punctuate a particular sentence, you probably have created a sentence that will puzzle readers too, no matter how you punctuate it. Rewrite the sentence in a form that requires only simple punctuation.