New Reports that Monarch Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Danaus plexippus Linnaeus) are Hosts for a Pupal Parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidae, Pteromalus cassotis Walker)

Carl Stenoien, Shaun McCoshum, Wendy Caldwell, Alma De Anda, Karen S Oberhauser

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Monarch butterflies are one of the best studied non-pest lepidopterans, serving as a model for migration, chemical ecology, and insect conservation. Despite the intensity with which the larvae and adults have been studied, the cryptic pupal stage is often difficult to study in the wild. It is perhaps due to this difficulty that researchers have largely overlooked monarchs' interactions with a pupal parasitoid, Pteromalus cassotis. Using field experiments in the northern U.S. and observational data from wild collected pupae in the southern U.S., we report occurrences of this host-parasitoid interaction at sites Minnesota, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin. At sites in Minnesota, rates of parasitism of experimentally placed monarch were highly variable, ranging from 60% in 2010 to 0% in 2013 and 2014. Observations of wild-collected pupae suggest that rates of parasitism may near 100% at some sites in the southern U.S. The number of wasps emerging from a single host ranged from 1-425 (mean = 71). Later dissections of hosts revealed that, in some cases, dead parasitoids remained inside the host as larvae, pupae, and/or adults. Within a host, wasp sex ratios were typically female biased (median = 91% female), as is common in gregarious parasitic hymenopterans. Infected monarch pupae at a site in Oklahoma produced more wasps per host, more male-biased sex ratios, and had higher survival than hosts from other sites. We discuss the possibility that P. cassotis is a specialist on monarchs and perhaps closely related species, based on monarchs' sequestered cardenolides, published host records, and evidence for correlated population dynamics of this host and parasitoid.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)16-26
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the Kansas Entomological Society
Volume88
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Kansas Entomological Society.

Keywords

  • Host-parasitoid interactions
  • cardenolides
  • chrysalis
  • parasitoid host range
  • specialization

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'New Reports that Monarch Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Danaus plexippus Linnaeus) are Hosts for a Pupal Parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidae, Pteromalus cassotis Walker)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this