Lateralized courtship in a parasitic wasp

ABSTRACT

Lateralization (i.e. left-right asymmetries in the brain and behaviour) of courtship displays has been examined in a growing number vertebrate species, while evidence for invertebrates is limited. In this study, we investigated lateralization of courtship and mating displays in the parasitic wasp Leptomastidea abnormis. Results showed a population-level lateralization of male courtship displays. Male antennal tapping on the female's head was right-biased. However, right-biased male courtship acts were not characterized by higher male antennal tapping frequencies, nor success in mating although antennal tapping frequency was higher in males with mating success with respect to unsuccessful males. Overall, our results add basic knowledge to the behavioural ecology of insect parasitoids. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of behavioural lateralization in parasitic Hymenoptera.

KEYWORDS:

• Antennal contact
• behavioural asymmetry
• Hymenoptera
• mating behaviour
• parasitoid

Acknowledgements

Two anonymous reviewers improved an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Compliance with ethical standards

All applicable international and national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the H2020 Project “Submarine cultures perform long-term robotic exploration of unconventional environmental niches” (subCULTron) [640967FP7]. G. Benelli is supported by PRAF 2012-2015 PROAPI. Funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.