Search results for "insect egg"
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Genetic variation in the behavioural mechanisms involved in the response of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus brochymenae to contact chemical cues left b…
2021
International audience; 1. The ability of parasitoid females to perceive chemical traces left by theirhosts is of utmost importance in the host location process. The behaviours involved insuch ability have thus most likely been promoted by natural selection in the course ofthe evolutionary time. For this to happen, however, there must be signicant geneticvariation in natural populations on which natural selection could act.2. Using the isofemale line method and motion analysis, we detected signicantintra-population genetic variation for several walking behaviour traits of the eggparasitoid Trissolcus brochymenae (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) females responding tochemical traces left by its h…
Nitric oxide radicals are emitted by wasp eggs to kill mold fungi
2019
Detrimental microbes caused the evolution of a great diversity of antimicrobial defenses in plants and animals. Insects developing underground seem particularly threatened. Here we show that the eggs of a solitary digger wasp, the European beewolf Philanthus triangulum, emit large amounts of gaseous nitric oxide (NO⋅) to protect themselves and their provisions, paralyzed honeybees, against mold fungi. We provide evidence that a NO-synthase (NOS) is involved in the generation of the extraordinary concentrations of nitrogen radicals in brood cells (~1500 ppm NO⋅ and its oxidation product NO2⋅). Sequencing of the beewolf NOS gene revealed no conspicuous differences to related species. However,…