Sensilla on antennae, ovipositor and tarsi of the larval parasitoids, Cotesia sesamiae (Cameron 1906) and Cotesia flavipes Cameron 1891 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): a comparative scanning electron microscopy study

Abstract

Two braconid parasitoids of cereal stemborers in eastern Africa, Cotesia sesamiae and Cotesia flavipes, have been shown to display a similar hierarchy of behavioural events during host recognition and acceptance. In order to understand the mechanisms underlying host recognition and acceptance, the morphology of antennal sensilla on the last antennomeres, on the ovipositor, and on the fifth tarsomere and pretarsus of the prothoracic legs tarsi were studied using scanning electron microscopy followed by selective silver nitrate staining. It appeared that female C. sesamiae and C. flavipes shared the same types and distribution of sensory receptors, which enable them to detect volatiles and contact chemical stimuli from their hosts. In both parasitoids, four types of sensilla were identified on the three terminal antennomeres: (i) non-porous sensilla trichodea likely to be involved in mechanoreception, (ii) uniporous sensilla chaetica with porous tips that have gustatory functions, (iii) multiporous sensilla placodea, which are likely to have olfactory function, and (iv) sensilla coeloconica known to have thermo-hygroreceptive function. The tarsi of both parasitoids possessed a few uniporous sensilla chaetica with porous tips, which may have gustatory functions. The distal end of the ovipositor bore numerous dome-shaped sensilla. However, there were no sensilla coeloconica or styloconica, known to have gustatory function in other parasitoid species, on the ovipositors of the two braconid wasps.