Parasitodiplogaster citrinema is an internal necrophagous species of the pollinating fig wasp Pegoscapus tonduzi

Abstract

Parasitodiplogaster has been considered to be an internal specialised parasite of the pollinating fig wasps. We found that the second-stage juveniles of Parasitodiplogaster citrinema emerge directly from the eggs retained in the ovaries, penetrate the adult female wasps at their eclosion from their galls, and moult to inactive dauers. Parasitodiplogaster dauers are ensheathed, and do not abandon the living host, while the pre-adults become necrophagous inside the wasp cadaver. The adult nematodes emerge from the wasp’s cadaver 72 h (up to 240 h) after the wasp perishes. Parasitodiplogaster citrinema was found to be proovigenic, has about 15 developed eggs in each oviduct and is ovoviviparous. Unfed caged adult female wasps remained alive for 65 h despite being infected. The dauers do not feed or grow inside the living hosts, and the adults seem to feed on dead fig tissues.