Evolution of Parasitoids - Biology Forum

last updated by

Darby 16 years ago

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- November 29, 2008 at 4:57 am #10518
  Jimmyonfire
  Participant
  Hello Biology dudes, I’m an insomniac and my mind has been wondering a bit. Can anyone explain to me (preferably in laymans terms) how they could have evolved/they and their hosts co-evolved? Parasitoids, that is. It seems so specialised I can’t imagine how they got like that.
- November 29, 2008 at 8:46 pm #87435
  Darby
  Participant
  From a scavenger larva to one that could live inside a living host is not much of a leap; from deposit of eggs on dead or debilitated hosts to lively ones isn’t a huge leap. Once you’ve got a parasite and host, coevolution is pretty much a given.
- November 30, 2008 at 5:41 am #87439
  Jimmyonfire
  Participant
  It just sees odd to me that at some point one of the ancestors of a wasp thought ‘hmm, yeah, i think i’ll lay some eggs inside the head of that moth over there!’. It’s just bizzare!
- December 3, 2008 at 9:51 pm #87533
  Darby
  Participant
  It doesn’t become a specific behavior all at once, but there are many instances of adults being influenced to deposit eggs in a spot that matches their own hatching place, which would help a shift in egg placing become set in place over a few generations.
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