Publication Date

1-1-1998

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

King, Bethia H.

Degree Name

B.S. (Bachelor of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

Nasonia vitripennis is a parasitoid wasp. It is a haplodiploid, which means that virgin females can lay only sons but mated females can lay sons or daughters. First, I tested females to see if contact would increase their activity levels. Contact may cue a female that she has mated and/or that there is a lot of competition; in either case it may then be beneficial to leave in search of suitable hosts. Second, I tested them to see if mated females were more active and produced more offspring than virgin females. Previous studies have shown that the more the wasp is touched, the more active it will be. Another study has shown that mated females are more active than virgin females. To my knowledge, the number of offspring produced has not been studied. My results show that wasps that were contacted were more active than the wasps that were not contacted, and that mated females were more active than virgin females. The mated females also had more hops, short flights, and long flights. However, the mated females did not produce more offspring than virgin females. There was not a relationship between time active and head size.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

9 unnumbered pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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