Hyperparasite

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A hyperparasite (wasps of the family Pteromalidae ) on cocoons of a brackish wasp species that has itself parasitized butterfly caterpillars

Under hyperparasite is understood in biology parasites which infect other parasites. A distinction is made between obligatory hyperparasites , which for their development necessarily depend on a different species that lives parasitically, and facultative hyperparasites , which also accept primary hosts ; as a rule, these infect the primary host and, if the host is already parasitized, the parasite instead. Hyperparasitism is common in real parasites and parasitoids . As a rule, no distinction is made here, i.e. that is, it is more common to speak of hyperparasites (instead of “hyperparasitoids”) in this case as well.

Examples

Plant pathogenic fungi

Numerous phytopathogenic types of fungus are themselves attacked by parasitic fungi, bacteria or viruses. For example, the common plant parasite Sclerotinia , which causes necrosis or death of plant organs, is attacked even by the specialized hyperparasitic fungal species Coniothyrium minitans and Sporidesmium sclerotivorum . Other hyperparasitic fungal species attack phytopathogenic fungi in living plant tissue, resulting in intricate biotic relationships (including the host plant species).

Parasitoid insects

Hyperparasitic insect species occur in three orders, the hymenoptera , two-winged bugs and beetles . The host of the hyperparasites is another type of insect that lives as a parasitoid, mostly in a herbivorous (phytophagous) species, but occasionally also in predatory or saprophagous hosts. As with the parasitoids themselves, there are also with hyperparasites endoparasites that develop inside the host's body and ectoparasites that feed on it from outside. In addition, a distinction is made between direct hyperparasites, which specifically occupy the parasitoids with eggs, and indirect ones, which parasitize the host, regardless of whether the host is parasitized or not. Hyper parasites are common among Hymenoptera eleven families of jewel wasps (Chalcidoidea), four subfamilies of parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae), very many ceraphronidae and Megaspilidae , gall wasps of the subfamily Alloxystinae and some types of small family trigonalidae . Among the Diptera they occur in the families Bombyliidae and Conopidae . Hyperparasites in beetles are rare and limited to a few species of the Rhipiphoridae and Cleridae .

The best researched because of their economic importance are hyperparasites of parasitoids of aphids (aphidoidea). These include the genera Asaphes , Pachyneuron and Coruna (Pteromalidae), Aphidencyrtus (Encyrtidae) and Tetrastichus (all gold wasps), the genus Dendrocerus (Megaspilidae) and the genera Alloxysta , Phaenoglyphis , Lytoxysta (gall wasps ). Their hosts are the brackish wasps of the subfamily Aphidiinae and the wasps of the family Aphelinidae . For example, the female of Allocysta victrix lays her egg in an already parasitized but still active aphid, pricking the parasite larva through the host's cuticle. Your own egg remains dormant at first. Only when the primary parasitoid has killed the aphid and wants to pupate in the remaining shell ("aphid mummy") does the larva of the hyperparasite hatch, which eats and kills the parasite larva from the inside.

Heteronomous hyperparasites and auto-parasitoids

A special case among the hymenoptera parasitoid are some species in which the female develops in a different host than the male (heteronomous parasitoids). Some species of the genus Encarsia (family Aphelinidae) (which is also important in biological pest control ) are known. Here the female develops as a normal parasitoid in aphids or other Schnabelkerfen , while males develop as hyperparasitoids on the parasitoid larvae, either of a different species or of their own species - in this case one speaks of auto-parasitoids .

Kleptoparasites as hyperparasites

A kleptoparasite is a parasite that steals or robs another species of food. Some hymenoptera parasitoid depend on the (involuntary) help of a related species to successfully parasitize their host. For example, the parasitic wasp Pseudorhyssa maculicornis is a parasitoid of wood wasp larvae, but it cannot pierce the hard wood in which the wood wasp larva lives with its ovipositor. It therefore deliberately parasitizes animals that have previously been parasitized by another parasitic wasp species, Rhyssa persuasoria , by exploiting their pre-drilled sting canals.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Levente Kiss: The role of hyperparasites in host plant - parasitic fungi relationships. In: Michael J. Jeger & NJ Spence (editors): Biotic Interactions in Plant-pathogen Associations. CABI Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84593-319-2 .
  2. ^ Daniel J. Sullivan (1987): Insect Hyperparasitism. Annual Revue of Entomology 32: 49-70. doi: 10.1146 / annurev.en.32.010187.000405
  3. ↑ L.-S. Zang, T.-X. Liu, F.-H. Wan (2011): Reevaluation of the Value of Autoparasitoids in Biological Control. PLoS ONE 6 (5): e20324. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0020324
  4. ^ MG Fitton, MR Shaw, ID Gauld (1988): Pimpline Ichneumon-flies (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Pimplinae). Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects Vol. 7, Part 1. published by the Royal Entomological Society of London, 1988. ISBN 0-901546-72-0 .