Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Biological Control of Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #82033
Title: DIFFERENTIAL ARRESTMENT OF APOLYSIS AND ECDYSIS IN LARVAE OF TRICHOPLUSIA NI TREATED WITH THE VENOM FROM THE ECTOPARASITOID WASP EUPLECTRUS COMSTOCKII (FAMILY: EULOPHIDAE)

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

Submitted to: International Entomophagous Insect Workshop
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The wasp Euplectrus comstockii injects a venom into the hemocoel of its lepidopteran hosts that arrests larval-larval apolysis and ecdysis. In previous studies a 66kDa protein that had arrestment activity was isolated from the venom. In the present studies hemolymph taken from 3rd instar Trichoplusia ni larvae 0-4 h post-parasitism did not arrest apolysis, but did cause arrestment of ecdysis when injected into 4th instar larvae. Larvae injected with hemolymph from insects 24 h post-parasitism developed normally. Antibodies to both total venom and to the N-terminus of the ecdysis-arresting protein were used to follow the fate of venom proteins within the host. Loss of arrestment activity was correlated with the disappearance of the ecdysis-arresting protein. Effect of venom titer, host factors, and proteases on the quality and extent of arrestment activity were determined.