Insects Visiting Drippy Blight Diseased Red Oak Trees Are Contaminated with the Pathogenic BacteriumLonsdalea quercina

Abstract

The focus of investigation in this study was to consider the potential of arthropods in the dissemination of the bacterium involved in drippy blight disease, Lonsdalea quercina. Arthropod specimens were collected and tested for the presence of the bacterium with molecular markers. The bacterium L. quercina was confirmed on 12 different insect samples from three orders (Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera) and eight families (Buprestidae, Coccinellidae, Dermestidae, Coreidae, Pentatomidae and/or Miridae, Apidae, Formicidae, and Vespidae). Approximately half of the insects found to carry the bacterium were in the order Hymenoptera. Estimates of the insects that are contaminated with the bacterium, and likely carry it between trees, is conservative because the documented insects represent only a subset of the insect orders that were observed feeding on the bacterium or present on diseased trees yet were not able to be tested. The insects contaminated with L. quercina exhibited diverse life histories, where some had a facultative relationship with the bacterium and others sought it out as a food source. These findings demonstrate that a diverse set of insects naturally occur on diseased trees and may disseminate L. quercina.

The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies

“…To further test the role of the microbiome in defining CHC profiles in individual worker bees, we manipulated the microbiomes of sister bees by inoculating them with different gut bacteria. Specifically, newly emerged bees were inoculated for 16 days with either Gilliamella apicola , a honey bee–specific symbiont, or Lonsdalea quercina , an opportunistic, environmentally acquired microbe ( 14 , 16 ). Both of these gut bacteria were naturally present in the guts of foragers included in our studies and are easily culturable in standard LB (Luria broth) medium ( Fig.…”

Host–microbiota–insect interactions drive emergent virulence in a complex tree disease

“…Acute oak decline (AOD) is a complex decline disease mediated by abiotic predisposing factors (temperature, rainfall, nutrients) [9] and biotic contributing factors (insect and bacterial) [8] that are a major threat to native oak in the UK, with similar declines described in continental Europe [10][11][12], Asia [13] and America [14]. The characteristic disease symptoms are outer bark cracks with dark exudates (bleeds), which overlie necrotic tissue in the inner bark, and larval galleries and exit holes of the two-spotted buprestid beetle Agrilus biguttatus [10].…”

First Description of the Adult Male of the Gall-Like Scale Insect Allokermes galliformis (Riley) (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Kermesidae)

“…Not only is A. galliformis one of the most widespread and well-studied species in the genus [1,4,9,10,11], it was also recently reported in outbreak numbers in Colorado, United States of America, where it was documented damaging red oak trees ( Quercus spp.) in conjunction with the bacterial pathogen involved in drippy blight disease ( Lonsdalea quercina ) [12,13]. In these drippy blight diseased systems, A. galliformis exhibited a univoltine life cycle similar to the previously reported life cycle of A. kingii Cockerell, 1898 [14,15].…”