Mortality of native and invasive ladybirds co-infected by ectoparasitic and entomopathogenic fungi

Harmonia axyridis is an invasive alien ladybird in North America and Europe. Studies show that multiple natural enemies are using Ha. axyridis as a new host. However, thus far, no research has been undertaken to study the effects of simultaneous infection by multiple natural enemies on Ha. axyridis....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 8; p. e10110
Main Authors: Haelewaters, Danny, Hiller, Thomas, Kemp, Emily A, van Wielink, Paul S, Shapiro-Ilan, David I, Aime, M. Catherine, Nedved, Oldrich, Pfister, Donald H, Cottrell, Ted E
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: San Diego PeerJ. Ltd 04-11-2020
PeerJ, Inc
PeerJ Inc
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Harmonia axyridis is an invasive alien ladybird in North America and Europe. Studies show that multiple natural enemies are using Ha. axyridis as a new host. However, thus far, no research has been undertaken to study the effects of simultaneous infection by multiple natural enemies on Ha. axyridis. We hypothesized that high thallus densities of the ectoparasitic fungus Hesperomyces virescens on a ladybird weaken the host's defenses, thereby making it more susceptible to infection by other natural enemies. We examined mortality of the North American-native Olla v-nigrum and Ha. axyridis co-infected with He. virescens and an entomopathogenic fungus-either Beauveria bassiana or Metarhizium brunneum. Laboratory assays revealed that He. virescens-infected O. v-nigrum individuals are more susceptible to entomopathogenic fungi, but Ha. axyridis does not suffer the same effects. This is in line with the enemy release hypothesis, which predicts that invasive alien species in new geographic areas experience reduced regulatory effects from natural enemies compared to native species. Considering our results, we can ask how He. virescens affects survival when confronted by other pathogens that previously had little impact on Ha. axyridis.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.10110