Studies of Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycota) on Myrmica ants: Rickiawasmannii in the Netherlands

An important group of fungal insect parasites is the Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota). These are microscopic in size and live attached to the cuticle of their arthropod hosts. Rickiawasmannii is a common European species limited to the ant genus Myrmica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). We present new records of R.wasmannii in the Netherlands on three host species: Myrmicaruginodis, M.sabuleti, and M.scabrinodis. Our data show a mass infection of M.sabuleti by R.wasmannii. The average parasite prevalence is 38% (n = 3,876). The prevalence was much lower on the other Myrmica species. So far, R.wasmannii in... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Haelewaters,Danny
Boer,Peter
Noordijk,Jinze
Dokumenttyp: Research article
Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
Verlag/Hrsg.: Pensoft Publishers
Schlagwörter: Ant-associated fungi / ectoparasites / Formicidae / host shift / Laboulbeniales / parasite prevalence
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26813132
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3897/JHR.44.4951

An important group of fungal insect parasites is the Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota). These are microscopic in size and live attached to the cuticle of their arthropod hosts. Rickiawasmannii is a common European species limited to the ant genus Myrmica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). We present new records of R.wasmannii in the Netherlands on three host species: Myrmicaruginodis, M.sabuleti, and M.scabrinodis. Our data show a mass infection of M.sabuleti by R.wasmannii. The average parasite prevalence is 38% (n = 3,876). The prevalence was much lower on the other Myrmica species. So far, R.wasmannii infections have been found only on Myrmica species in the rubra-group and the scabrinodis-group. We provide possible explanations for this observation. To date, Rickiawasmannii is known on nine Myrmica species in sixteen European countries; an overview is included in tabulated form.