Biologists from Simon Fraser
University
This species of parasitic wasp grows to about 2mm in length,
and lays eggs inside the eggs of the gypsy moth. This moth was introduced into North Amercia from in the early 20th century as a
biological control agent for the moths, an invasive species harmful to hardwood
trees.
Kelly Ablard the head researcher said “the female
wasps emerge from their eggs sexually mature and looking for love. Lusty little
buzzers are at the ready. Female wasps mate just once in their four- to
six-week lifetimes, and so it is that the wasps’ mating ritual bares a striking
resemblance to a nightclub at midnight.
Females of this species only mate once
and they mate when they emerge… and the males at this point only really have
one opportunity to get a female and mate with her,”
The male species actually hatches from
the egg a day before the female, and as he does, he basically just sits and
waits.
Kelly Ablard also stated that “certain males in a competitive setting will adopt a
type of mating strategy, a mating tactic, that allows them to basically
collect, gather and guard a harem of females, which is highly unusual for
insects, or invertebrates for that matter.
The male
species markes the females with a chemical substance so he can find them later
for a few romantic seconds, and deterring other, slower, lovesick suitors.
That female waits for
him to come back and mate her later. In the meantime, he runs around and he
tags a whole bunch of other females for this harem”
Kelly
Albard mentions that some males do mate ‘em as they meet ‘em, but the quicker,
more agile males mate with multiple females.
Who would have thought that within the insect world females
would perceive and classify well conditioned males as higher quality!Source
