A team of biologists recently discovered a new species of parasitoid wasp in the United States that has a unique way of infecting its host. Cintretas Perlmani The wasps lay their eggs inside the bodies of live adult fruit flies, rather than developing larvae or pupae. The wasp larvae emerge from the abdomen of the fruit fly and kill it. This process The study was published in the journal Neurology on September 11th. Nature.
“All known parasitoids of flies attack and develop at an immature developmental stage,” said study co-author Matthew Ballinger, a biologist at Mississippi State University. He said in a statement. “And despite 200 years of research into parasitic wasps, Drosophila And like other flies, I’ve never come across a species that attacks adult flies.”
This new species also It was found hiding “in plain sight.” To learn more about nematode infections in flies, study co-author Logan Moore, a doctoral student at Mississippi State University, was collecting infected fruit flies in his Starkville backyard when he and his team found wasp larvae in the abdomens of some of the flies, but they weren’t sure what species they were.
[Related: This parasitic wasp forces other parasitic wasps to do its dirty work, then eats them.]
Typically, parasitoid wasps lay eggs inside fruit fly larvae or pupae, which then hatch and the young bees grow and mature inside the host. The wasps eat the host from the inside out, eventually killing it before it can develop into an adult.
Cintretas Perlmani Bees do something different: They use their stinger to lay eggs inside the abdomen of a fruit fly. These eggs hatch into wasp larvae that spend about 18 days inside the fruit fly’s body. In the lab, the researchers: Cintretas Perlmani The larvae After about 23 days, the fly emerges from the abdomen and leaves the host..
The team Field Collections and Public Data This is to show that this new hornet species is actually widespread across the eastern half of the United States. Cintretas Perlmani It infects Drosophila, one of the most studied animals in biology. Drosophila melanogasterIt has been used for centuries as a type species in biological research.
“Parasites and pathogens Drosophila “Biological and behavioral studies are helping researchers learn more about fundamental biological processes like immunity and reproduction,” Ballinger says.
[Related: Swapping genes can help fruit flies regenerate cells.]
The research team worked with Scott Shaw, an entomologist and parasitoid wasp expert from the University of Wyoming. Formal description of this new speciesThey also Complete Life Cycle To the biologist Instructions on how to raise adult hornets Laboratory research.
“We’re excited to learn more about this new species,” Ballinger said, “and we hope that in the coming years other researchers will begin their own projects to further our understanding of the infection biology, ecology and evolution of this fungus.”
