Unusual host carrying by a parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Braconinae, Pycnobraconoides)

摘要: Although many adult aculeate hymenopteran parasitoids physically manipulate their hosts, such as transferring them to more sheltered places prior to oviposition (Quicke 1997), such behaviour is highly unusual amongst non-aculeate parasitoid wasps. Thus, members of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea, along with most other parasitic, wasps, normally oviposit in their hosts in situ though one hyperparasitic species has been observed to physically haul on the silk thread of an escaping host larva to bring it within reach (Yeargan and Braman 1989).We here report unusual carrying behaviour in the endemic Australian braconine wasp genus Pycnobraconoides. A single female wasp was observed and photographed at Barrington Tops National Park, Australia on 15th January 2010. Attention was drawn to it because it was carrying a case-making chrysomeline (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) larva, in its case, back and forth on a horizontal stem. The wasp was first observed for about ten minutes as it moved back and forth while using its front legs to hold the case beneath the stem approximately half a meter above the ground. A series of photographs shows the wasp periodically moving to a vertical stem before shifting the grip to the front and middle legs, and ovipositing (or at least probing with her ovipositor) in the case before shifting the case back to the front legs to carry it back and forth once again.