Mattesia sp. is a pathogen of several stored-product Coleoptera and Lepidoptera including Oryzaephilus surinamensis. It is transmitted per os and displaces the host fat body before its death. Cephalonomia tarsalis is a bethylid parasitoid of O. surinamensis. It does not oviposite on Mattesia-infected hosts but does attack and apparently feed on them. All C. tarsalis that were confined with heavily infected larvae contracted the infection themselves. Two weeks post-exposure, there was no mortality in the infected adult wasps.
Species 1: Coleoptera Silvanidae Oryzaephilus surinamensis (sawtoothed grain beetle)
Species 2: Hymenoptera Bethylidae Cephalonomia tarsalis
Species 3: Neogregarinida Lipotrophidae Mattesia
Keywords: tritrophic
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA