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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Biological Control of Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #75692

Title: TEMPORAL STABILITY AND HOST ARRESTMENT QUALITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE VENOM OFTHE EULOPHID PARASITOID EUPLECTRUS COMSTOCKII

Author
item WRIGHT, MAUREEN - UNIV OF MISSOURI
item Coudron, Thomas
item BRANDT, SANDY - UNIV OF MISSOURI

Submitted to: National Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/8/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The venom of the ectoparasitoid Euplectrus comstockii (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) arrests larval-larval apolysis and ecdysis when injected into the hemocoel of its lepidopteran hosts. Bioassays of the hemolymph from parasitized Trichoplusia ni show that arrestment activity within the hemolymph decreases from 100% to less than 5% by 20 hours post-parasitism. This arrestment activity differs from that seen in naturally parasitized larvae in that ecdysis is arrested, but not apolysis. Use of antibodies to both whole venom and the N-terminus of an ecdysis-arresting protein from the venom was used to visualize the fate of venom proteins within the hemolymph of T. ni over this same time period.