Deleterious Effects of Low Temperature Exposure on Learning Expression in a Parasitoid

In this paper, we review the learning capacities of insect parasitoids. We present data on the learning capacity of the parasitoid wasp, Anaphes victus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), in the host (egg) discrimination process. In addition, we examine the effect of low temperature exposure on the wasp’s learning. Our results showed that A. victu s females learned rapidly to recognize their own chemical cues that they left on the host eggs, and retained this learning from patch to patch. Conspecific chemical cues left on the eggs took more time to be learned, but two learning trials induced a prolonged memory for the cues. Our results also showed that the use of learned, conspecific chemical cues was more affected by cold exposure than was the use of learned personal cues