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Project properties |
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| Title | To fly or not to fly: finding flightless females in parasitic wasps |
| Group | Genetics, Laboratory of |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 12-36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Bart Pannebakker |
| Examiner(s) | Bas Zwaan |
| Contact info | bart.pannebakker@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/04/15 |
| End date | 2024/04/15 |
| Description |
Nasonia vitripennis are parasitoids that lay their eggs in fly pupae. After emergence and mating, females take off to find new host fly pupae to produce their offspring, making flight important for their fitness. Recently, we found that when these wasps lay their eggs in a patch with many fly pupae, they produce about 10% females that do not fly. Interestingly, while these females have normal-sized front wings, they have shorter hind wings. This begs the question, why these females do not fly, when this clearly is beneficial for their fitness. To investigate this, we first want to investigate the conditions under which these flightless females are produced. Does it depend on the competition with other females, or on the availability of resources? Once we have these conditions clear, we can start investigating the costs and benefits of flightlessness. A thesis topic can be done at all levels, and can include a variety of techniques, depending on the length and level of the thesis research (BSc/MSc). Techniques can include rearing wasps, measuring wings and body size, physiological and behavioural measurements. |
| Used skills | morphological data collection on wasps, wing and body size measurements, physiological and behavioural measurements (can be tailored on your own interests) |
| Requirements | BSc course in (insect) ecology, for instance GEN-20306 (can be discussed) |