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Sarah Leduc
M.Sc. Student
I am studying the potter wasp Delta dimidiatipenne that builds nests on rock surfaces, placing an egg and sufficient amount of caterpillars to feed its offspring inside each cell. Strangely, we observed that the nests very often don't produce successful offspring, but instead contain parasitoid wasps of the caterpillars. We suspect our potter wasp to collect parasitized caterpillars while building her nest, which appears like a maladaptive behavior since it prevents in many cases the development of the potter wasp offspring. The goal of my research is to estimate the frequency and the cost of the collection of parasitized caterpillar by this wasp, as well as the mechanism behind this behavior.
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