Reproductive Biology of Thrips Insect Species and Their Reproductive Manipulators

Abstract

Some thrips species are considered as model insect organisms to study reproductive biology since some closely related (sub) species were mainly reproducing by arrhenotoky, thelytoky and in some rare cases as deuterotoky. As other insect species, thrips are associated with endosymbiotic bacteria and this bacteria has led to manipulating their reproductive biology. The main goal of this paper is to review the reproductive modes of thrips species, potential reproductive manipulators and their strategies to change the reproductive biology of thrips species. Wolbachia, Cardinium, Rickettsia and Spiroplasma have been detected in the reproductive organs of some thrips species and the most common insect reproductive manipulators by using various strategies such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, thelytokous parthenogenesis, male killing and feminization.

Keywords: - Apomictic, Automictic, Endosymbionts, Thrips tabaci and Wolbachia