BioOne.org will be down briefly for maintenance on 17 December 2024 between 18:00-22:00 Pacific Time US. We apologize for any inconvenience.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 August 2014 Potential Fecundity of a Highly Invasive Gall Maker, Dryocosmus kuriphilus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)
Ignazio Graziosi, Lynne K. Rieske
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Fecundity is a key factor in modulating population growth rate, and is of particular significance when considering the invasiveness of introduced species. In insects, fecundity is affected by body size, age, and nutrition. We investigated the potential fecundity of the invasive Asian chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae), an introduced parthenogenetic gall former of Asian origin and a global pest of chestnut (Castanea spp.), to better understand its invasiveness. We compared ovarian, egg, and body metrics of adult wasps of different age. We evaluated insect weight, body length, mesosomal and metasomal lengths and widths, hind femur length, number of eggs, and size of eggs in wasps from four age cohorts. Adult weight and metasomal width were positively correlated with number of eggs. Egg load decreased with wasp age, and egg size initially increased before decreasing. Our findings suggest that adult D. kuriphilus, previously reported as proovigenic, may be resorping eggs in the absence of suitable hosts, and reallocating nutritive resources for body maintenance and egg quality to increase fitness, implicating a plasticity in its reproductive strategy. D. kuriphilus may be able to vary its potential fecundity in response to nutrition and host availability, thus increasing its invasiveness.

© 2014 Entomological Society of America
Ignazio Graziosi and Lynne K. Rieske "Potential Fecundity of a Highly Invasive Gall Maker, Dryocosmus kuriphilus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)," Environmental Entomology 43(4), 1053-1058, (1 August 2014). https://doi.org/10.1603/EN14047
Received: 26 February 2014; Accepted: 12 June 2014; Published: 1 August 2014
JOURNAL ARTICLE
6 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
Asian chestnut gall wasp
Castanea spp.
egg load
egg maturation
invasiveness
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top