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Abiotic effects on the clear-winged grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acridae) and its fungal pathogen Entomophaga grylli (Entomophthorales: Entomophthoraceae) in an intermountain bunch-grass prairie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2017

Erica J. Kistner  and
Gary E. Belovsky
Erica J. Kistner*
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment,Ames, Iowa, 50011, United States of America
Gary E. Belovsky
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Environmental Research Center, University of Notre Dame, 094 Galvin Life Sciences, Notre Dame, Indiana, 46556, United States of America
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: ekistnerphd2014@gmail).
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Abstract

The grasshopper, Camnula pellucida Scudder (Orthoptera: Acridae), is a severe pest of small grains and rangeland forage in North America. In a field experiment using cages containing C. pellucida in northwestern Montana, United States of America, we manipulated exposure to the fungal entomopathogen, Entomophaga grylli Fresenius (Entomophthorales: Entomophthoraceae) pathotype 1, temperature using small greenhouses, and moisture for the pathogen with water pillows. Treatment effects on fungal infection (mycosis) rates and grasshopper survivorship were assessed. Water pillows provided additional moist habitat for E. grylli without having an impact on grasshopper performance or the plant biomass and nitrogen content. Number of fungal spores, pathogen-induced mortality rates, and treatment effects on grass biomass and nitrogen content were also measured. Water pillows benefited the pathogen by increasing fungal spore levels by eightfold, which in turn shortened pathogen-exposed grasshopper survival time by half. In contrast, warming reduced fungal spore levels by 50% and subsequently reduced mortality from E. grylli by 67%. However, warmed pathogen-exposed grasshoppers did not exhibit enhanced survival, which may be due, in part, to intraspecific competition among the surviving grasshoppers.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 149 , Issue 3 , June 2017 , pp. 315 - 325
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2017 

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Footnotes

Subject editor: Susan Bjornson

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