The evolutionary costs of Drosophila melanogaster to mount an immune defense against the parasitoid wasp Asobara tibida.
Although parasites can have negative effects on hosts, some hosts have the ability to produce an immune defense against parasitism. Recent work on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster shows that flies experience fitness costs (i.e. reduced longevity, reproductive output, and size) from mounting immune response against parasitism by the parasitoid wasp Asobara tabida (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). We studied the cross-generational fitness effects on offspring of when parents were parasitized by wasps. We compared larval development time and viability as well as size at maturity of offspring of parasitized versus offspring of unparasitized parents. We found that parasitized parents had offspring of lower viability than unparasitized parents. However, development times of offspring of the two groups were not different.
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