Host-Parasitoid Associations in Strepsiptera

Jeyaraney Kathirithamby

doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.54.110807.090525

Host-Parasitoid Associations in Strepsiptera

Jeyaraney Kathirithamby¹
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Affiliations: Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, and St. Hugh's College, St. Margaret's Road, Oxford OX2 6LE, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]
Vol. 54:227-249 (Volume publication date January 2009) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.54.110807.090525
First published as a Review in Advance on September 25, 2008
© Annual Reviews

Abstract

Strepsiptera are obligate endoparasitoids that exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism and parasitize seven orders and 33 families of Insecta. The adult males and the first instar larvae in the Mengenillidia and Stylopidia are free-living, whereas the adult females in Mengenillidia are free-living but in the suborder Stylopidia they remain endoparasitic in the host. Parasitism occurs at the host larval/nymphal stage and continues in a mobile host until that host's adult stage. The life of the host is lengthened to allow the male strepsipteran to complete maturation and the viviparous female to release the first instar larvae when the next generation of the host's larvae/nymphs has been produced. The ability of strepsipterans to parasitize a wide range of hosts, in spite of being endoparasitoids, is perhaps due to their unique immune avoidance system. Aspects of virulence, heterotrophic heteronomy in the family Myrmecolacidae, cryptic species, genomics, immune response, and behavior of stylopized hosts are discussed in this chapter.

Keyword(s): cryptic species, entomophagous parasitoid, heterotrophic heteronomy, macrynobionts, sexual dimorphism

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2009-01-07

2025-04-18

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Host-Parasitoid Associations in Strepsiptera

Annual Review of Entomology 54, 227 (2009); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.54.110807.090525

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Supplementary Data

Download all Supplemental Material as a single PDF. Includes:
- Links to Supplemental Videos 1-6 (videos embedded below)
- Supplemental Figure 1 (reproduced below)
- Supplemental Table 1: Known families of Strepsiptera and their geographical distributio
- Supplemental Table 2: Strepsiptera families with genera, extant species numbers, hosts and fossil species
- Supplemental Table 3: Parasitoid taxa with the number of phyla and orders parasitiz
Supplemental Video 1: Newly emerged first instar larva of Xenos vesparum Christ (length of larva 95 µm). (Material collected by L. Beani, infection and recording by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Video 2: First instar larva of Xenos vesparum Rossi emerging from female cephalothorax of Polistes dominulus (Christ). (Material collected by L. Beani, and recording by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Video 3: Third instar larva of Caenocholax fenyesi waloffi Kathirithamby & Johnston, parasite of Macroanaxipha macilenta (Saussure) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). (length = 1.1 mm). (Recorded by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Video 4: Early male fourth instar larva of Xenos vesparum Rossi (length = 3 mm). (Material collected by L. Beani, infection and recording by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Video 5: Neotenic female Xenos vesparum Ross with emerging first instar larvae. (Material collected by L. Beani, recorded by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Video 6: Newly emerged male of Xenos vesparum Rossi (length = 5.9 mm). (Material collected by L. Beani, infection and recording by J. Kathirithamby.) Download video file (MP4)

Supplemental Figure 1: Life cycle stylopized and unstylopized Polistes dominulus and its strepsipteran parasitoid Xenos vesparum (data from 40, 42).