Hyperparasitoids on soybean aphids in North America: thelytoky in the hyperparasitoid Alloxysta brevis cured with antibiotics, by J.S. Dregni, A. Casiraghi, M. Ferrer-Suay, G.E. Heimpel. Presented to the Entomological Society of America, 2019.
In Brief: We cured thelytoky (female-only reproduction) in Alloxysta brevis with the antibiotic rifampicin (1mg/mL). We then mated female and male A. brevis, with apparent copulation and production of female offspring. We were not certain that mating lead to production of females, as the data were also consistent with the antibiotic treatment wearing off after 14 days.
Using molecular analysis we showed that Alloxysta curta was the brachypterous male of Alloxysta ramulifera; this was the first record of this variant in the Nearctic. We showed the first Nearctic record of Alloxysta brachyptera.