Little Organisms, Big World: Insect Gut Bacteria Partnerships
A recent review in the open-access Journal of Insect Science shines a light on the diversity of host-symbiont relationships among holometabolous insects.
The Best Look Yet at the Tiny Fungus Storage Units Inside Ambrosia Beetles
Advances in microscopic imaging techniques are revealing, in unprecedented detail, the structure of mycangia—the internal organs that ambrosia beetles use to store and transport the symbiotic fungi they farm.
Gut Microbes Can Help Insects Beat Pesticides
Insects have evolved a variety of mechanisms to try to overcome the effects of insecticides—including, in some cases, help from the bacteria and other microbes living in insects' guts. A growing number of studies indicate a link between symbiotic microbes and insecticide resistance in a diverse range of insects.
Cicadas Race to Catch Up With Their Evolving Endosymbionts
In cicadas, a world of microbes has evolved to provide them nutrients. Researchers at the University of Montana have discovered that a cicada bacterial endosymbiont, Hodgkinia cicadicola, has split into at least two dozen lineages within cicada cells, in an apparent case of nonadaptive evolution.