A vine that eats a parasitic wasp's lunch!
We report evidence of a new trophic interaction in nature whereby a parasitic plant attacks multiple species of insects that manipulate plant tissue when the two co-occur on a shared primary host plant. Most plant species are attacked by a great diversity of external and internal herbivores. One common herbivore guild, gall-forming insects, induce tumor-like structures of nutrient-rich plant tissue within which immature insects feed and develop. While the gall is made of plant tissue, its growth and development are controlled by the insect and it therefore represents an extended phenotype of the gall former. Typically, parasitic plants attack other plants to gain nutritional requirements by connecting directly to the vascular system of their hosts using modified root structures called haustoria. Here, we document the first observation of a parasitic plant attacking the insect-induced galls of multiple gall-forming species and provide evidence that this interaction negatively affects gall former fitness.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30815-7
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This vine isn't exactly fighting back -- it is intervening to exploit a fight between wasp and oak. It's a sort of meta-parasite.
ReplyDeleteLev Osherovich: I can relate.
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