The Outside Story the Grisly Business of Parasitoids
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When a parasitoid kills its host, it can indeed The Outside Story be a grisly business. Typically, an adult female parasitoid lays an egg on the surface of or into the body of a living larva of another insect. When the egg hatches, the parasitoid proceeds to systematically consume the host. Like a cat with a mouse, it keeps its victim alive as long as possible. Dead larvae rot quickly, and this ruins the meal. So first the parasitoid eats the fat bodies of the larva, then the digestive organs, keeping the heart and central nervous system intact for as long as possible. Finally, these are consumed as well and the long‐suffering victim dies, leaving an empty caterpillar shell in which the victorious insect may choose to pupate. The slow death inflicted by parasitoids that attack other insects (and sometimes spiders) tested the concept of a benevolent God for 19th‐century theologians who discussed this practice at length. The Grisly Business of Even Darwin had trouble with the largest Parasitoids parasitoid family, as he wrote to Asa Gray in By: Virginia Barlow 1860: “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have At this time of year, it’s the caterpillars eating designedly created the Ichneumonidae with leaves in the garden or the deer flies after our the express intention of their feeding within blood that get most of our attention. But the living bodies of Caterpillars…”. behind the scenes are many insects that eat other insects, and among them is a group The female giant ichneumon wasp called the parasitoids, a clan that includes (Megarhyssa macrurus) is a striking animal, some rather demonic members. two inches long, boldly patterned in brown, orange, and yellow. Her two‐ to four‐inch long A parasitoid develops on a single host and ovipositor with its two protective filaments kills the host in the process. Parasites, on the looks like three long tails. Some parasitoids other hand, tend to nibble on their hosts can choose to lay their eggs on a variety of without killing them. And predators typically host species, but giant ichneumon wasps kill more than one of their prey items. need to find a larva of a pigeon horntail (Tremex columba), which is also a kind of Because most parasitoids spend much of their wasp. Nothing else will do. lives buried within the bodies of their victims, they don’t attract a lot of attention. But they There is intense selective pressure on both of are abundant and serve an important role in these insects to outwit the other. When a natural ecosystems, especially in agriculture, horntail female lays her egg in a tree, she where they influence or regulate the includes both a fungus and a mucus secretion population density of many of their hosts. that promotes fungal growth, thus enabling her larva to burrow deeply into the wood. While this defensive strategy may once have at one eight‐thousandth of an inch long, may given the horntail an advantage, the clever be the world’s smallest insect. ichneumon soon figured out how to zero in on the very fungus that the horntail has It is thought that this lifestyle may have enlisted. Once a female Megarhyssa arrives at developed in the distant past from insects the promising tree, she appears to use her that consumed dead prey. Some antennae to sense the vibrations of her entomologists believe that around 20 percent potential host. of all insect species now living are parasitoids. The insect order that includes wasps and bees She walks slowly over the bark, her antennae has the greatest number, but there are many busily going back and forth, before drilling parasitoid flies as well, along with the commences. Drilling might take half an hour, occasional beetle or moth. as the ovipositor is slowly pushed through up to 4 inches of solid wood. Virginia Barlow is a founding editor of Northern Woodlands. The illustration for this The ichneumon ovipositor is incredibly column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The slender, not much thicker than a horse hair, Outside Story is assigned and edited by and the egg that passes through it is, by Northern Woodlands magazine and necessity, deformed into a slender, threadlike sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of shape. But the process of finding a horntail, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: drilling a hole, and inserting an egg does not [email protected]. always result in a next ichneumon generation. Other ichneumon wasps, of species that are unable to drill such holes themselves, may use Megarhyssa holes to insert their own eggs. When these hatch, the larvae destroy the Megarhyssa eggs and proceed to consume the horntail larva themselves. An appealing host larva may have several parasitoid species competing for its nourishing tissues. In addition, many parasitoids have evolved to prey only on other parasitoids; these are called hyperparasitoids. And, amazingly, some hyperparasitoids are themselves attacked by parasitoids – making an extremely long food chain. There is great variation in the behavior, shape, and size of insects who survive by PO Box 471, Corinth, Vermont 05039 consuming their brethren in this way. A tiny Tel. 802.439.6292 Fax 802.439.6296 egg parasitoid in the wasp family Mymaridae, www. northernwoodlands.org This article is reprinted with the permission of the Center For Northern Woodlands Education. A not for profit organization, Northern Woodlands seeks to advance a culture of forest stewardship in the northeast by increasing understanding of and appreciation for the natural wonders, economic productivity and ecological integrity of the region’s forests. Subscribe or donate at www.northernwoodlands.org. .