Wednesday, 17 November 2004 - 2:00 PM
0160

Effects of antibiotics on the reproduction of Wolbachia-infected black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Youngsoo Son, yson@vt.edu, Edwin E. Lewis, lewise@vt.edu, and Shirley Luckhart, luckhart@vt.edu. Virginia Tech, 216-A Price Hall, Department of Entomology, Blacksburg, VA

Wolbachia are maternally inherited intracellular bacteria that infect many arthropod species. Wolbachia infection in insects can alter host reproductive biology in several ways, including causing cytoplasmic incompatibility between insects with different status, parthenogenesis in haplodiploid species, and killing or feminization of genetic males. All O. sulcatus populations in the US that we have examined are infected by Wolbachia. Our objective was to determine the effects of a Wolbachia infection on O. sulcatus reproduction by curing the infection with antibiotic treatments and comparing infected and non-infected individuals. Preovipositing females fed tetracycline-treated foliage produced a significantly lower proportion of hatched eggs than control females. No significant differences were measured between treatment and control groups in mortality, feeding, preovipositional period, or the total number of eggs produced. Our results suggest that O. sulcatus reproduction is impaired in the absence of Wolbachia.


Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Otiorhynchus sulcatus (black vine weevil, root weevil)
Species 2: Wolbachia pipientis
Keywords: antibiotics, reproduction

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