Abstract
Three species of Microsporidia were identified from a population of the beet webworm Loxostege sticticalis at prevalence rates of 35, 4, and 3%. The most prevalent parasite (Tubulinosema sp.) was similar to Tubulinosema acridophagus (99.8% ssrDNA sequence similarity) and was also isolated from the parasitoid Lydella thompsoni (Diptera, Tachinidae) that emerged from the beet webworms. In laboratory assays, spores of this Tubulinosema sp. showed an infection rate of up to 80% for both L. sticticalis and Galleria mellonella larvae. The spores were viable after 12 months of storage in dried infected cadavers. The second most prevalent parasite was closely related to Nosema furnacalis and Nosema granulosis (98.7% similarity). Fresh spores showed a 50% infection rate under laboratory conditions. The third most abundant parasite was identified as the honeybee pathogen Nosema ceranae (100% ssrDNA and 95–100% IGS similarity). In the laboratory, fresh spores of N. ceranae isolated from beet webworm and honey bee were infective to L. sticticalis larvae at the rates of 5 and 2%, respectively.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to V.V. Glupov (Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Novosibirsk, Russia) for the permission to use the lab culture of Galleria mellonella and D.A. Gvozdarev (St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, Pushkin, St. Petersburg, Russia) for kind gift of N. ceranae-infected honey bees.
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This study was funded by Russian Science Foundation (grant # 16-14-00005).
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Malysh, J.M., Ignatieva, A.N., Artokhin, K.S. et al. Natural infection of the beet webworm Loxostege sticticalis L. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) with three Microsporidia and host switching in Nosema ceranae. Parasitol Res 117, 3039–3044 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5987-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5987-3