Nasonia

Species: vitripennis
Genus: Nasonia
Family: Pteromalidae
Order: Hymenoptera
Class: Insecta
Phylum: Arthripoda
Kingdom: Animalia

Conditions for Customer Ownership

Primary Hazard Considerations

Nasonia themselves are harmless to humans. You should always wash your hands thoroughly before and after you handle your Nasonia, its food, or anything it has touched.

Availability

Nasonia are available year round. Nasonia will arrive as pupae either encased in a Sarcophaga pupae host which is shipped in a plastic tube with cotton stopper, or sorted (sexed) in a plastic tube with cotton stopper. We over-pack each order ofNasonia. It is normal to have some deceased Nasonia in the container. You will receive at least the quantity of live Nasonia stated on the container. Nasonia can be kept in this shipping container to emerge from their pupae, or placed in separate containers to do so. Once emerged, adult Nasonia live for about 15 days. Nasonia are very small, and need to be observed under a stereoscope for proper sexing.

Captive Care

• Development of Nasonia can be slowed down by exposing them to lower temperatures, allowing time to carefully plan experiments.  Placing them in the refrigerator (4°C) is ideal for slowing development. Do not store your Nasonia in the refrigerator longer than three weeks, as long periods of refrigeration lessen viability. (Diapause is the state that Nasonia enter into upon refriegration and can live for 1.5–2 years under the right temperature and humidity.)
• Nasonia can survive without food or water for a few days. If kept longer than this, provide them with a 4% sucrose solution by adding a drop or two to the cuture vial.

Care:

• Food: Larval stage – Sarcophaga pupae (hosts)

Information

• Upon receipt, you may want to check the stage of the Nasonia. To do this, remove a parasitized host from the culture tube. Using your fingers or a pair of forceps, gently crack open the thin pupal casing of the host that contains the Nasonia pupae.
• Once the Nasonia pupae are exposed, note what stage most of the Nasonia are in.  Place the cracked open host containing the Nasonia pupae back into the culture tube. If adults are present they can be used immediately for sub-culturing.  Assume that these adults are non-virgins, so do not use them for experiments needing virgins.
• If you need virgin Nasonia for your experiments, they should be sexed in the pupal stage.
• Adult Nasonia will be needed for culturing, so you will need to incubate the pupae at room temperature until they become adults. Use the guidelines in the table below to plan accordingly. Ideally, while incubating, Nasonia should be exposed to cool, indirect light for 24 hours a day. Fluorescent light works well. Light that emits too much heat will harm the Nasonia.

• If incubated at room temperature
  Pupal stage upon arrival	Days to adulthood
  Whites	3-4
  Black and Whites	2-3
  Blacks	1-2

• Method of Reproduction: The unique reproductive strategy of Nasonia is known as haplodiploid inheritance and is also common to many other insects, such as bees. Nasonia exhibit a form of asexual reproduction, known as parthenogenesis, in which an organism is able to develop from an unfertilized egg. As a result, when the eggs are not fertilized, offspring will be haploid (n) and male. In turn, when the eggs are fertilized by a male, the chromosome number is restored to the diploid state (2n) and the offspring will be female. Once a female has copulated, she will store sperm until needed. She is able to “choose” when to fertilize her eggs.
• For example, the offspring from a non-virgin female are usually 95% female and 5% male. This occurs because the female chooses to fertilize 95% of her eggs with the sperm she has stored, resulting in diploid female offspring. The other 5% of her eggs remain unfertilized and therefore develop as haploid males.

Life Cycle

• Eggs: 1 day
• Larvae: 9 days
• White: 1-2 days
• Black & White: 1-2 days
• Black: 1-2 days
• Adult: Up to 45 days
• Sexing: Nasonia can be sexed while they are still pupae (figures 3 and 4).  Male pupae are smaller in body size and have short wings.  Female pupae have a larger body size, long wings that wrap around the abdomen, and a visible ovipositor.

Wild Habitat

Nasonia have a wide distribution around the world and are found in dumpsters and around decaying animal carcasses. They parasitize the pupae of the flies that are also attracted to these areas.

Disposition

• Do one of the following:
  • Place Nasonia in a freezer for 48 hours.
  • Place Nasonia in 70% isopropyl alcohol for 24 hours.
  • Autoclave the Nasonia @ 121°C for 15 minutes.