Some plant-pathogenic fungi can use flying insects to transmit spores to the host plants that they visit, and they frequently produce nectar to attract such insects. We found a introduced plant-pathogenic fungus inducing the host plant to produce honeydew (containing massive amounts of conidia), which attracted migratory moths for dispersal of the fungal spores.

Slime molds (Myxogastria) produce spores that are similar in appearance to fungal spores. Spore‐feeding beetles such as sphindids are abundant on the fruiting bodies of slime molds. The spore‐feeding beetles may passively carry slime mold spores on their bodies and disperse them.

Publication

Sugiura, S., Fukasawa, Y., Ogawa, R., Kawakami, S. & Yamazaki, K. (2019) Beetles as potential dispersers of slime mold spores. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 100(3): e01564.

Sugiura, S., Fukasawa, Y., Ogawa, R., Kawakami, S. & Yamazaki, K. (2019) Cross-kingdom interactions between slime molds and arthropods: a spore dispersal mutualism hypothesis. Ecology, 100(8): e02702.

Sugiura, S. & Masuya, H. (2010) Leaf-mining beetles carry plant pathogenic fungi amongst hosts. Journal of Natural History, 44(35-36): 2179-2186.

Sugiura, S., Yamazaki, K. & Masuya, H. (2010) Incidence of infection of carabid beetles by laboulbenialean fungi in different habitats. European Journal of Entomology, 107(1): 73-79.

Sugiura, S. & Yamazaki, K. (2007) Migratory moths as dispersal vectors of an introduced plant-pathogenic fungus in Japan. Biological Invasions, 9(2): 101-106.

Yamazaki, K., Sugiura, S. & Fukasawa, Y. (2004) Epizootics and behavioral alteration in the arctiid caterpillar Chionarctia nivea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) caused by an entomopathogenic fungus, Entomophaga aulicae (Zygomycetes: Entomophthorales). Entomological Science, 7(3): 219-223.