Immune Cell Production Is Targeted by Parasitoid Wasp Virulence in a -Parasitoid Wasp Interaction.

The interactions between and the parasitoid wasps that infect species provide an important model for understanding host-parasite relationships. Following parasitoid infection, larvae mount a response in which immune cells (hemocytes) form a capsule around the wasp egg, which then melanizes, leading to death of the parasitoid. Previous studies have found that host hemocyte load; the number of hemocytes available for the encapsulation response; and the production of lamellocytes, an infection induced hemocyte type, are major determinants of host resistance.