Coccinellid host morphology dictates morphological diversity of the parasitoid wasp Dinocampus coccinellae

In this study we quantified the effect of six (4 native North American and 2 non-native North American) host species on the morphometrics of D. coccinellae. Adult lady beetles were collected from 13 locations in the United States and reared in the laboratory until D.coccinellae exited from their adult beetle hosts. Eighty-nine individual D. coccinellae females and their associated host were weighed and morphometric measurements were taken. The smallest lady beetle host Hippodamia parenthesis produced the smallest adult wasps; the largest host species, Coccinella septempunctata, produced the largest female wasps. A directional cline in morphology of wasps and their coccinellid hosts was also observed in a dry-weight regression (R2 = 0.4066, p-value < 0.0001). Two underlying mechanisms may explain the results of our study: (1) morphometric variation in D. coccinellae is governed by phenotypic plasticity with the size of the emerging offspring contingent on the size of the coccinellid host, and/or (2) that morphometric variation in D. coccinellae is governed by genomic adaptation to coccinellid host populations
Source: Biological Control - Category: Biology Source Type: research