Pratibha Yadav

LivinFarms

Invertebrates possess the unique ability to see polarized light. This allows them to exploit the rich polarization information embedded in their natural environments: patterns in plants, high contrast on water surfaces, distinctive signatures of conspecifics, and the celestial polarization pattern around the sun. From this wide repertoire of polari...

In a tritrophic system, parasitoid development and galler host survival strategies have rarely been investigated simultaneously, an approach crucial for a complete understanding of the complexity of host–parasitoid interactions. Strategies in parasitoids to maximize host exploitation and in gallers to reduce predation risk can greatly affect the st...

1. Acceptance of hosts for oviposition is often hardwired in short‐lived insects, but can be dynamic at the individual level due to variation in physiological state determinants such as ageing and prior oviposition. However, the effect of the oviposition history of resources together with time taken to accept less preferred hosts in ageing insects...

In the fig–fig wasp nursery pollination system, parasitic wasps, such as gallers and parasitoids that oviposit from the exterior into the fig syconium (globular, enclosed inflorescence) are expected to use a variety of chemical cues for successful location of their hidden hosts. Behavioral assays were performed with freshly eclosed naive galler was...

The main objective of this thesis is to understand host location and acceptance by externally ovipositing parasitic non-pollinating fig wasps of Ficus racemosa whose oviposition sites are hidden within the fig syconium (enclosed inflorescence) and are accessed with the help of their probing ovipositors. We first investigated the trophic interaction...

Host location in insects is often hard-wired but it can be dynamic at an individual level due to variation in physiological state determinants. The critical parameter, time of acceptance of low ranked hosts, has not been recorded by researchers while studying the effect of ageing on specificity. We performed behavioral assays with naïve wasps and w...

We show that the insect ovipositor is an olfactory organ that responds to volatiles and CO2 in gaseous form. We demonstrate this phenomenon in parasitic wasps associated with Ficus racemosa where ovipositors, as slender as a human hair, drill through the syconium (enclosed inflorescences) and act as a guiding probe to locate highly specific egg-lay...

Presented by Prof. Renee M. Borges at the 53 rd Annual meeting of Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Montpellier, France, June 19-23, 2016

Presented at Gordon Research Seminar and Gordon Research Conference on Plant Volatiles, California, USA. January 25-31, 2014