A Short Review of Teratocytes and Their Characters in Cotesia plutellae (Braconidae: Hymenoptera)

An endoparasitoid wasp, Cotesia plutellae, oviposits into host hemocoel along with maternal factors including polydnavirus, ovarian proteins, and venom to manipulate host immune and development. This research reports presence and characters of teratocytes derived from developing embryos of C. plutellae. Teratocytes of C. plutellae could be cultured in ExCell-400 culture medium supplemented with antibiotics. Though they did not increase in numbers, they grew in size from 15.5 ± 0.6 im during hatching to 37.2 ± 9.6 μm at 8 days after hatching in ExCell 400 medium. This report also introduces main characters about teratocytes found in other species.