While looking at a female Conostigmus sp. specimen, I noticed a few large, oval-shaped masses inside the abdomen. They almost resembled larvae and I became excited, thinking that I had possibly found endoparasitoids within our parasitic wasps.
However, when I dissected the abdomen, it turned out that the oval-shaped masses were actually eggs. We thought that these eggs looked very large in relation to the wasps’ abdomen.
Since these eggs were large and there were only a few inside the female, this could indicate that this species of Conostigmus follows an idiobiont life strategy. Idiobionts tend to be ectoparasitoids; females lay fewer but larger eggs on hosts, and the larvae arrest the development of the host they parasitize. Adults often have longer lifespans and exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism (differences between males and females) (Quicke 1997).
An alternative to the idiobiont life strategy is the koinobiont life strategy. Koinobionts are endoparasitoids, meaning that they live inside their hosts, which often continue to develop normally with the immature parasitoid inside. Female koinobionts tend to lay smaller eggs, but in much greater quantities than idiobionts. Adults also have shorter lifespans, and there is usually not a pronounced difference between males and females (Quicke 1997).
It is important to note that these two parasitoid life strategies are generalizations: a species that lays small quantities of larger eggs may not necessarily follow an idiobiont lifestyle. However, with a wasp we know so little about, these generalizations are useful as a starting point for hypothesizing about the lifestyles of these wasps.
What do you think? Feel free to leave any comments below!
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