Trichomycetes (Zygomycota) are a cosmopolitan class of filamentous fungi that are assumed to live as obligate commensals in the guts of arthropods, although this assumption has rarely been tested under field or laboratory conditions. Both the mid- and hindguts of larval black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) commonly harbor a variety of trichomycete species. Using the black fly host Simulium vittatum and the hindgut trichomycetes Smittium culisetae and Sm. megazygosporum, the exact nature of this symbiotic relationship (parasitism, mutualism or commensalism) was investigated. Larval size and survival was used to assess differences in fitness between infected and non-infected black flies. The symbiotic relationship was then categorized by comparing differences in fitness levels between infected and non-infected larvae.
Species 1: Diptera Simuliidae Simulium vittatum (black flies)
Species 2: Harpellaceae Legeriomycetaceae Smittium culisetae
Species 3: Harpellaceae Legeriomycetaceae Smittium megazygosporum
Keywords: symbiosis
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA