Wellcome to the seminar today at 12.15 in PT302. David Hughes: The behavioural ecology of Strepsipteran parasites of paper wasps (Polistes)

See also the abstract of the talk:

The Strepsiptera are an order of obligately parasitic insects which infect seven other orders of insects. Whilst species poor (692 known species) they are of major interest because of their unique biology and life history. Here I present an overview of Strepsiptera before focusing on the research I carried out for my D.Phil. Specifically I will discuss prevalence of parasitism within Polistes wasps (paper-wasps) from Italy and Mexico before detailing the laboratory and field observations on the manipulation of host behvaiour by this parasite and the energetic costs of parasitism. The latter element draws attention to the factors shaping the evolution and expression of virulence and posits the role that social insects societies may play.