Parasitoid wasp that lays its eggs inside of adult fruit fly discovered

12 Sep 2024, 14:29 by Bob Yirka

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Photographs of the lateral or ventral abdomen for a permissive host species, Drosophila acutilabella (a), and a resistant host species, Drosophila immigrans (b–d; representative images from one cohort of 15 infections). Arrows in (a) indicate small melanization spots associated with wasp oviposition. For both species, photographs were taken nine days post-oviposition by the same female wasp. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07919-7

A small team of biologists at Mississippi State University and the University of Wyoming has found a species of parasitoid wasp that lays its eggs inside of living adult fruit flies. In their study, published in the journal Nature, the group accidentally discovered the new wasp species while conducting research on fruit flies.

Prior research has shown that there are large numbers of parasitoid species, many of which rely on a host to carry their eggs for them. A large number of wasp species lay their eggs in fruit fly larvae or pupae. In such instances, the eggs remain dormant in the host for a certain period of time as they mature and then begin eating the host from the inside until they are fully grown, generally resulting in the death of the host.

In this new study, the research team has found one species of wasp that lays its eggs inside the body of a fully grown fruit fly.

The work researchers were collecting adult fruit flies from the backyard of one of the team members—their intent was to learn more about nematode infections in the flies. While studying some of the specimens they caught, they found eggs in their abdomens that they were unable to identify. A closer look showed that they were from a previously unknown species of wasp.

The researchers studied the eggs and the wasps at various stages of their life cycle and found that they were related to wasps in the genus Syntretus—all of the others in the genus parasitize only adult bees and wasps. They named the new species Syntretus perlmani.

Life stages of S. perlmani. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07919-7

The research team suggests the newly found species switched from parasitizing bees and wasps to adult fruit flies for unknown reasons. Also unknown are the changes the wasps underwent that allowed for the switch—and how the wasps manage to catch and hold on to the fruit flies, which are notoriously elusive.

The team suggests their findings and observations could lead to new avenues of research into parasitoidism of adult insects.

More information: Logan D. Moore et al, Drosophila are hosts to the first described parasitoid wasp of adult flies, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07919-7

Body snatchers: these parasitoid wasps grow in adult fruit flies, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-024-02929-x

Journal information: Nature