Bassettia pallida

Bassettia pallida is a species of gall wasp found in the Southern United States. This species was described by American entomologist William Harris Ashmead in 1896. B. pallida reproduces asexually in galls it induces on oak trees. The parasite Euderus set, a chalcid wasp, has B. pallida as a host and manipulates its behavior.

Bassettia pallida
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Cynipidae
Genus: Bassettia
Species:
B. pallida
Binomial name
Bassettia pallida

Taxonomy

William Harris Ashmead described this species in 1896 based off a female specimen in the National Museum of Natural History. The holotype was collected in 1884 in Georgia.[1]

Distribution

This species has been found in the American states of Georgia, Florida,[2] Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas.[3] Its type location is Savannah, Georgia.[1]

Description

Adult female

The female is 2 mm (0.08 in) long. The antennae have thirteen joints. The head, antennae, thorax and legs are a brownish yellow color, while the posterior tibiae and eyes are dark brown and the abdomen is a polished black. A grooved line goes around the base of the scutellum.[1]

Biology

Reproduction

The females can reproduce asexually in galls of the oaks Quercus geminata, Quercus virginiana,[2] and Quercus minima.[4] These oak species are all in the Virentes subsection of Quercus.[5] Galls are formed on the oaks' stem underneath the bark.[4] Mature B. pallida come out of the galls in March or April,[2] coinciding with the production of new leaves on the oak.[6]:3 Sexual reproduction is thought to happen afterwards in galls formed on the midvein of new leaves.[6]:3

Parasites
Euderus set

The chalcid wasp Euderus set parasitizes B. pallida.[3][6] This is a rare example of hypermanipulation, i.e., where one parasite which manipulates its host's phenotype has its own phenotype manipulated by a different parasite. In this case, B. pallida causes the oak to form a gall, and E. set alters the behavior of B. pallida to create a hole in the gall and plug the hole with their head and die; E. set later emerges through a hole in its host's head.[6]

Only the asexual reproductive stage is targeted by E. set.[6]:3

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References
  1. Ashmead, William H. (1896). "Descriptions of new cynipidous Galls and Gall-Wasps in the United States National Museum". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 19 (1102): 128.
  2. Melika, G.; Abrahamson, W. G. (2007). "Review of the nearctic gallwasp species of the genus Bassettia Ashmead, 1887, with description of new species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini)" (PDF). Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 53 (2): 131–148.
  3. Egan, Scott P.; Weinersmith, Kelly L.; Liu, Sean; Ridenbaugh, Ryan D.; Zhang, Y. Miles; Forbes, Andrew A. (2017). "Description of a new species of Euderus Haliday from the southeastern United States (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae): the crypt-keeper wasp". ZooKeys (645): 37–49. doi:10.3897/zookeys.645.11117. PMC 5299223. PMID 28228666.
  4. Price, Peter W.; Abrahamson, Warren G.; Hunter, Mark D.; Melika, George (2004). "Using gall wasps on oaks to test broad ecological concepts". Conservation Biology. 18 (5): 1415. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00547.x. JSTOR 3589008.
  5. Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; González-Rodríguez, Antonio; Eaton, Deren A. R.; Hipp, Andrew A. L.; Beulke, Anne; Manos, Paul S. (2015). "Phylogeny and biogeography of the American live oaks (Quercus subsection Virentes): a genomic and population genetics approach". Molecular Ecology. 24 (14): 3669. doi:10.1111/mec.13269. PMID 26095958.
  6. Weinersmith, Kelly L.; Liu, Sean M.; Forbes, Andrew A.; Egan, Scott P. (2017). "Tales from the crypt: a parasitoid manipulates the behaviour of its parasite host". Proceedings of the Royal Society. B: Biological Sciences. 284 (1847): 20162365. doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2365. PMC 5310038. PMID 28123089.
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