Abstract
Parasitoid wasps inflict widespread death upon the insect world. Hundreds of thousands of parasitoid wasp species kill a vast range of insect species. Insects have evolved defensive responses to the threat of wasps, some cellular and some behavioral. Here we find an unexpected response of adult Drosophila to the presence of certain parasitoid wasps: accelerated mating behavior. Flies exposed to certain wasp species begin mating more quickly. The effect is mediated via changes in the behavior of the female fly and depends on visual perception. The sight of wasps induces the dramatic upregulation in the fly nervous system of a gene that encodes a 41-amino acid micropeptide. Mutational analysis reveals that the gene is essential to the behavioral response of the fly. Our work provides a foundation for further exploration of how the activation of visual circuits by the sight of a wasp alters both sexual behavior and gene expression.
Highlights
Parasitoid wasps inflict widespread death upon the insect world
We asked whether the mating of male and female fruit flies would be affected by the presence of parasitoid wasps
We placed a pair of D. melanogaster flies in a small Petri dish, either with or without parasitoid wasps (Fig. 1a)
Summary
Parasitoid wasps inflict widespread death upon the insect world. Hundreds of thousands of parasitoid wasp species kill a vast range of insect species. We find that exposure to parasitoid wasps affects sexual behavior between male and female flies: surprisingly, it is accelerated. Results We asked whether the mating of male and female fruit flies would be affected by the presence of parasitoid wasps.
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