Insect-Fungal Associations Ecology and Evolution

by Vega, Fernando E.; Blackwell, Meredith

• ISBN13: 9780195166521
• ISBN10: 0195166523
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Insects and fungi have a shared history of association in common habitats where together they endure similar environmental conditions, but only recently have mycologists and entomologists recognized and had the techniques to study the intricacies of some of the associations. This new volumecovers "seven wonders of the insect-fungus world" for which exciting new results have become available, often due to the use of new methods that include phylogenetic analysis and development of molecular markers. Eleven chapters of the volume are presented in two sections, "Fungi that act against insects" and "Fungi mutualistic with insects" that cover a number of major themes. Examples of necrotrophic parasites of insects are discussed, not only for biological control potential, but also as organisms withpopulation structure and complex multipartite interactions; a beneficial role for symptomless endophytes in broad-leafed plants is proposed; biotrophic fungal parasites with reduced morphologies are placed among relatives using phylogenetic methods; complex methods of fungal spore dispersal includeinteractions with one or more arthropods; the farming behavior of New World attine ants is compared with that of humans and the Old World fungus-growing termites; certain mycophagous insects use fungi as a sole nutritional resource; and other insects obtain nutritional supplements from yeasts. Insects involved in fungal associations include--but are not limited to--members of the Coleoptera, Diptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, and Isoptera. The fungi involved in interactions with insects may be clustered taxonomically, as is the case for Ascomycetes in the Hypocreales (e.g., Beauveria,Metarhizium, Fusarium), ambrosia fungi in the genera ophiostoma and ceratocystis and their asexual relatives, Laboulbeniomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and the more basal Microsporidia. Other groups, however, have only occasional members (e.g., mushrooms cultivated by attine ants and termites) in suchassociations. The chapters included in this volume constitute a modern crash course in the study of insect-fungus associations.

Author Biography

Fernando E. Vega is an insect pathologist at the Insect Biocontrol Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service facility. He researches developing innovative biological control methods to control the coffee berry borer, the most devastating pest of coffee throughout the world. Meredith Blackwell is a mycologist using cultural, morphological, and molecular characters in her studies of the biology of associations between fungi and insects. She has conducted field studies in the Sonoran Desert, northern Gulf Coast, Canada, and Panama.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Seven Wonders of the Insect--Fungus World	xiii
Meredith Blackwell
Fernando E. Vega
Part I. Fungi Acting against Insects
Phylogenetics of the Insect Pathogenic Genus Beauveria	3	(25)
Stephen A. Rehner
Phylogeography of Metarhizium, an Insect Pathogenic Fungus	28	(23)
Michael J. Bidochka
Cherrie L. Small
Interactions between Entomopathogenic Fungi and Arthropod Natural Enemies	51	(23)
Michael J. Furlong
Judith K. Pell
Ecology and Evolution of Fungal Endophytes and Their Roles against Insects	74	(23)
A. Elizabeth Arnold
Leslie C. Lewis
The Fungal Roots of Microsporidian Parasites	97	(22)
Naomi M. Fast
Patrick J. Keeling
Fungal Biotrophic Parasites of Insects and Other Arthropods	119	(30)
Alex Weir
Meredith Blackwell
Part II. Fungi Mutualistic with Insects
Reciprocal Illumination: A Comparison of Agriculture in Humans and in Fungus-growing Ants	149	(42)
Ted R. Schultz
Ulrich G. Mueller
Cameron R. Currie
Stephen A. Rehner
Evolutionary Dynamics of the Mutualistic Symbiosis between Fungus-Growing Termites and Termitomyces Fungi	191	(20)
Duur K. Aanen
Jacobus J. Boomsma
The Role of Yeasts as Insect Endosymbionts	211	(33)
Fernando E. Vega
Patrick F. Dowd
The Beetle Gut as a Habitat for New Species of Yeasts	244	(13)
Sung-Oui Suh
Meredith Blackwell
Ecology and Evolution of Mycophagous Bark Beetles and Their Fungal Partners	257	(36)
Thomas C. Harrington
Conclusion: Symbioses, Biocomplexity, and Metagenomes	293	(4)
Fernando E. Vega
Meredith Blackwell
Index	297