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Species differences in bumblebee immune response predict developmental success of a parasitoid fly

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Abstract

Endoparasitoids develop inside the body of a host organism and, if successful, eventually kill their host in order to reach maturity. Host species can vary in their suitability for a developing endoparasitoid; in particular, the host immune response, which can suppress egg hatching and larval development, has been hypothesized to be one of the most important determinants of parasitoid host range. In this study, we investigated whether three bumblebee host species (Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, and Bombus impatiens) varied in their suitability for the development of a shared parasitoid, the conopid fly (Conopidae, Diptera) and whether the intensity of host encapsulation response, an insect immune defense against invaders, could predict parasitoid success. When surgically implanted with a nylon filament, B. griseocollis exhibited a stronger immune response than both B. impatiens and B. bimaculatus. Similarly, B. griseocollis was more likely to melanize conopid larvae from natural infections and more likely to kill conopids prior to its own death. Our results indicate that variation in the strength of the general immune response of insects may have ecological implications for sympatric species that share parasites. We suggest that, in this system, selection for a stronger immune response may be heightened by the pattern of phenological overlap between local host species and the population peak of their most prominent parasitoid.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge funding and support from Sigma Xi’s Grant-in-Aid of Research Program, the University of Virginia’s Ingrassia Family Research Grant for Echols Scholars, and the National Science Foundation’s FSML Program (DBI1034846). S. E. D. was supported by the University of Virginia’s College Science Scholars Program and Blandy Experimental Farm. We thank Dr David E. Carr for his careful review of the statistical analyses in this paper. For their technical assistance in the field and laboratory we thank Amber Slatosky, Ariel Firebaugh, Courtney Beach, Megan Huff, and Kellen Paine. We also thank two anonymous referees whose comments improved this manuscript.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest in the execution or publication of this research.

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  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, 291 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Staige E. Davis, Rosemary L. Malfi & T’ai H. Roulston

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  1. Staige E. Davis
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  2. Rosemary L. Malfi
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Correspondence to Rosemary L. Malfi.

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Communicated by George Heimpel.

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Davis, S.E., Malfi, R.L. & Roulston, T.H. Species differences in bumblebee immune response predict developmental success of a parasitoid fly. Oecologia 178, 1017–1032 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3292-8

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