Impacts of Sarcophaga bullata Puparium Volume on Nasonia vitripennis Parasitic Success

Parasite-host interactions influence ecosystems and promote evolutionary changes, affecting physiology, reproduction, and population dynamics. In these interactions, the parasite will benefit from obtaining nutrients and shelter at the cost of the host organism, harming it in the process. Parasitic wasps, Nasonia vitripennis, are considered a model organism to study how genes impact physiology, behavior, and development. Their parasite-host interactions with Sarcophaga bullata fly pupa are widely studied. However, none of these studies have investigated if the volume of S. bullata puparium could impact parasitic success. We aim to understand how resource availability in S. bullata puparium could impact the parasitic success rate of N. vitripennis wasps. We ran multiple experimental trials in which pupae of varying volumes were randomly selected and exposed to colonies of wasps for 72 hours. After exposure we measured parasitic success by counting the number of N. vitripennis pupae developed in each S. bullata puparium. We speculate that there will be a preference towards larger pupariums since these will provide more resources to the developing N. vitripennis offspring under a competitive space.  The larger the pupae, the less competition amongst developing wasps, which would increase their individual success. Not only do we gain a better understanding of the population dynamics of N. vitripennis wasps in both wild and lab settings but also further our understanding of how resource access could impact development and parasitic success.