Ladybirds as a model system for the study of male-killing symbionts

Abstract

Maternally inherited bacteria that kill male but not female hosts during embryogenesis occur in a number of aphidophagous coccinellids. Work on English Adalia bipunctata (L.), has shown the causative agent of male-killing to be a member of the bacterial genus Rickettsia. In coccinellids, the primary advantage of male-killing behaviour to the bacterium has been identified. Following male death, resource reallocation occurs through sibling egg cannibalism: female neonate larvae of infected mothers gain a significant survival advantage by eating the soma of their dead male siblings. In addition, daughters of infected females suffer a reduced risk of cannibalism as a result of the lower egg hatch rate in infected clutches. Predictions as to which species of coccinellid are liable to harbour male-killers may be made on the basis of the selective advantages of male-killing identified in A. bipunctata. Species which may harbour male-killers are likely to lay eggs in clutches, show sibling egg cannibalism, and exhibit high neonate mortality. Recent work has shown male-killing to occur in a number of other aphidophagous coccinellids with the predicted characteristics. Molecular genetic analysis has putatively identified three bacterial symbionts associated with male-killing, coming from three phylogenetically distant bacterial taxa. We therefore suggest that within coccinellids that possess these features, male-killing may evolve in a taxonomically diverse range of inherited bacteria. The implications of the presence of male-killing bacteria on the population demography of host coccinellids, and on host mitochondrial DNA variability are discussed. The aphidophagous coccinellids are proposed as a model system for studying the evolution and consequences of infection with male-killers.