COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF THE OVIPOSITOR OF SOME PARASITIC HYMENOPTERA IN RELATION TO CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR HOSTS

Although the structure of the ovipositor of parasitic Hymenoptera is l argely uniform, interspecific variation in its morphology can be obser ved. Such variability may be related to the diversity of hosts attacke d. To verify such an hypothesis, we compared, using correspondence ana lysis, the morphological characteristics of the ovipositors of 20 spec ies in three categories: (i) species belonging to the same taxonomic u nit and attacking the same type of host, (ii) species belonging to the same taxonomic unit but attacking different types of host, and (iii) species belonging to different taxonomic units but attacking the same type of host. Results show that variability in some morphological trai ts of the ovipositor can be related to host characteristics. Adaptive convergence in morphological variations observed between species is di scussed.