Defensive insect symbiont leads to cascading extinctions and community collapse

Sanders D., Kehoe R., van Veen F., McLean A., Godfray A.C.J., Dicke M., Gols R., Frago E.
2016

Animals often engage in mutualistic associations with microorganisms that protect them from predation, parasitism or pathogen infection. Studies of these interactions in insects have mostly focussed on the direct effects of symbiont infection on natural enemies without studying community-wide effects. Here, we explore the effect of a defensive symbiont on population dynamics and species ...

Ecologie animale