Fungal infections lead to shifts in thermal tolerance and voluntary exposure to extreme temperatures in both prey and predator insects.

ABSTRACT: Pathogens can modify many aspects of host behavior or physiology with cascading impacts across trophic levels in terrestrial food webs. These changes include thermal tolerance of hosts, however the effects of fungal infections on thermal tolerances and behavioral responses to extreme temperatures (ET) across trophic levels have rarely been studied. We examined how a fungal pathogen, Beauveria bassiana, affects upper and lower thermal tolerance, and behavior of an herbivorous insect, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and its predator beetle, Hippodamia convergens. We compared changes in thermal tolerance limits (CT_Min and CT_Max), thermal boldness (voluntary exposure to ET), energetic cost (ATP) posed by each response (thermal tolerance and boldness) between healthy insects and inse

SUBMITTER: Porras MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8571377 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature