A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium.

When colonizing new ranges, plant populations may benefit from the absence of the checks imposed by the enemies, herbivores, and pathogens that regulated their numbers in their original range. Therefore, rates of plant damage or infestation by natural enemies are expected to be lower in the new range. Exposing both non-native and native plant populations in the native range, where native herbivores are present, can be used to test whether resistance mechanisms have diverged between populations. Datura stramonium is native to the Americas but widely distributed in Spain, where populations show lower herbivore damage than populations in the native range. We established experiments in two localities in the native range (Mexico), exposing two native and two non-native D. stramonium populations to natural herbivores. Plant performance differed between the localities, as did the abundance of the main specialist herbivore, Lema daturaphila. In Teotihuacán, where L. daturaphila is common, native plants had significantly more adult beetles and herbivore damage than non-native plants. The degree of infestation by the specialist seed predator Trichobaris soror differed among populations and between sites, but the native Ticumán population always had the lowest level of infestation. The Ticumán population also had the highest concentration of the alkaloid scopolamine. Scopolamine was negatively related to the number of eggs deposited by L. daturaphila in Teotihuacán. There was among-family variation in herbivore damage (resistance), alkaloid content (scopolamine), and infestation by L. daturaphila and T. soror, indicating genetic variation and potential for further evolution. Although native and non-native D. stramonium populations have not yet diverged in plant resistance/constitutive defense, the differences between ranges (and the two experimental sites) in the type and abundance of herbivores suggest that further research is needed on the role of resource availability and adaptive plasticity, specialized metabolites (induced, constitutive), and the relationship between genealogical origin and plant defense in both ranges.

Entomopathogenic fungi and their potential for the management of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Americas

Classical biological control has been used extensively for the management of exotic weeds and agricultural pests, but never for alien insect vectors of medical importance. This simple but elegant control strategy involves the introduction of coevolved natural enemies from the centre of origin of the target alien species. Aedes aegypti - the primary vector of the dengue, yellow fever and Zika flaviviruses - is just such an invasive alien in the Americas where it arrived accidentally from its West African home during the slave trade. Here, we introduce the concept of exploiting entomopathogenic fungi from Africa for the classical biological control of Ae. aegypti in the Americas. Fungal pathogens attacking arthropods are ubiquitous in tropical forests and are important components in the natural balance of arthropod populations. They can produce a range of specialised spore forms, as well as inducing a variety of bizarre behaviours in their hosts, in order to maximise infection. The fungal groups recorded as specialised pathogens of mosquito hosts worldwide are described and discussed. We opine that similar fungal pathogens will be found attacking and manipulating Ae. aegypti in African forests and that these could be employed for an economic, environmentally-safe and long-term solution to the flavivirus pandemics in the Americas.

Symbiotic bacterial communities in ants are modified by invasion pathway bottlenecks and alter host behavior.

Biological invasions are a threat to global biodiversity and provide unique opportunities to study ecological processes. Population bottlenecks are a common feature of biological invasions and the severity of these bottlenecks is likely to be compounded as an invasive species spreads from initial invasion sites to additional locations. Despite extensive work on the genetic consequences of bottlenecks, we know little about how they influence microbial communities of the invaders themselves. Due to serial bottlenecks, invasive species may lose microbial symbionts including pathogenic taxa (the enemy release hypothesis) and/or may accumulate natural enemies with increasing time after invasion (the pathogen accumulation and invasive decline hypothesis). We tested these alternate hypotheses by surveying bacterial communities of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile). We found evidence for serial symbiont bottlenecks: the bacterial community richness declined over the invasion pathway from Argentina to New Zealand. The abundance of some genera, such as Lactobacillus, also significantly declined over the invasion pathway. Argentine ants from populations in the United States shared the most genera with ants from their native range in Argentina, while New Zealand shared the least (120 vs. 57, respectively). Nine genera were present in all sites around the globe possibly indicating a core group of obligate microbes. In accordance with the pathogen accumulation and invasive decline hypothesis, Argentine ants acquired genera unique to each specific invaded country. The United States had the most unique genera, though even within New Zealand these ants acquired symbionts. In addition to our biogeographic sampling, we administered antibiotics to Argentine ants to determine if changes in the micro-symbiont community could influence behavior and survival in interspecific interactions. Treatment with the antibiotics spectinomycin and kanamycin only slightly increased Argentine ant interspecific aggression, but this increase significantly decreased survival in interspecific interactions. The survival of the native ant species also decreased when the symbiotic microbial community within Argentine ants was modified by antibiotics. Our work offers support for both the enemy release hypothesis and that invasive species accumulate novel microbial taxa within their invaded range. These changes appear likely to influence invader behavior and survival.

To each his own: no evidence of gyrodactylid parasite host switches from invasive poeciliid fishes to Goodea atripinnis Jordan (Cyprinodontiformes: Goodeidae), the most dominant endemic freshwater goodeid fish in the Mexican Highlands.

BACKGROUND: Goodeid topminnows are live-bearing fishes endemic to the Mexican Highlands (Mesa Central, MC). Unfortunately, in the MC, environmental degradation and introduced species have pushed several goodeid species to the brink of extinction. Invasive fishes can introduce exotic parasites, and the most abundant goodeid, blackfin goodea Goodea atripinnis Jordan, is parasitised by six exotic helminths. Poeciliids are widely dispersed invasive fishes, which exert negative ecological effects on goodeids. Poeciliids host several species of the monogenean genus Gyrodactylus von Nordmann, 1832, including pathogenic, invasive parasites. Here, we looked for evidence of Gyrodactylus species switching hosts from poeciliids to goodeids. METHODS: Fish were collected in rivers draining the MC into both sides of the continental divide. Hosts were screened for gyrodactylid parasites in localities where G. atripinnis and poeciliids occurred sympatrically. Gyrodactylus specimens were characterised morphologically (attachment apparatus) and molecularly (internal transcribed spacer region, ITS). A Bayesian phylogenetic tree using ITS sequences established relationships between gyrodactylids collected from goodeid fishes and those from parasites infecting poeciliids. RESULTS: Gyrodactylids were collected from G. atripinnis in six localities on both sides of the watershed where exotic poeciliids occurred sympatrically. Morphological and molecular analyses indicated the presence of four undescribed species of Gyrodactylus infecting this goodeid host. Gyrodactylus tomahuac n. sp., the most abundant and geographically widespread species, is described here. The other three Gyrodactylus spp. are not described, but their ITS sequences are used as molecular data presented here, are the only available for gyrodactylids infecting goodeid fishes. Morphological and molecular data suggest that two distinct groups of gyrodactylids infect goodeids, one of which shares a common ancestor with gyrodactylids parasitizing poeciliids. CONCLUSIONS: No evidence was found of gyrodactylids switching hosts from invasive poeciliids to endemic goodeids, nor vice versa. Moreover, considering that G. atripinnis is known to host both Gyrodactylus lamothei Mendoza-Palmero, Sereno-Uribe & Salgado-Maldonado, 2009 and Gyrodactylus mexicanus Mendoza-Palmero, Sereno-Uribe & Salgado-Maldonado, 2009, with the addition of G. tomahuac n. sp. and the three undescribed Gyrodactylus spp. reported, at least six gyrodactylids may infect this host. This would make monogeneans the second most abundant parasite group infecting G. atripinnis, which to date is known to harbour 22 helminth species: nine digeneans, five nematodes, four cestodes, three monogeneans and one acanthocephalan.

Acquired and introduced macroparasites of the invasive Cuban treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis.

Because shifts in host-parasite relationships can alter host populations, attention should be given to the parasites that introduced species take with them or acquire in their introduced range. The Cuban treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, is a successful invasive species in Florida with its parasites in the native range being well-documented, but there is a void in the literature regarding what parasites were lost or introduced in its expansion. We necropsied 330 O. septentrionalis from Tampa, FL and compared their macroparasites to those of O. septentrionalis in their native range and to the parasites of anurans native to the Tampa, FL area to determine the species O. septentrionalis likely introduced or acquired in Florida. At least nine parasite species (Aplectana sp., Oswaldocruzia lenteixeirai, Cylindrotaenia americana, Physaloptera sp., Rhabdias sp., Centrorhynchus sp., unidentified trematode metacercariae, unidentified larval acuariids, and unidentified pentastomids) were isolated. We found no differences in parasite communities of adult male and female frogs, which averaged 19.36 parasite individuals and 1.39 parasite species per adult frog, and had an overall prevalence of 77.52%. Acuariid larvae were likely acquired by O. septentrionalis in FL because they are not found in their native range. O. lenteixeirai was likely introduced because it is commonly reported in O. septentrionalis' native range but has never been reported in FL-native anurans. Aplectana sp. is also likely introduced because it has been reported in several anurans in Cuba but only reported once in Florida. O. septentrionalis tended to harbor fewer of its native parasites in the introduced range, which is consistent with the enemy release hypothesis and potentially creates an immunological advantage for this invasive host. Because native populations can be threatened by introduced parasites, there is a need to further explore the frequency and rate at which non-native hosts introduce parasites.