A Stresipteran parasite extends the lifespan of workers in a social wasp

Abstract In social wasps, female lifespan depends on caste and colony tasks: workers usually live a few weeks while queens as long as 1 year. Polistes dominula paper wasps infected by the strepsipteran parasite Xenos vesparum avoid all colony tasks, cluster on vegetation where parasite dispersal and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Laura Beani, Romano Dallai, Federico Cappa, Fabio Manfredini, Marco Zaccaroni, Maria Cristina Lorenzi, David Mercati
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-03-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86182-6