Many animals depend on microbial symbionts to provide nutrition, defence or other services.
Holometabolous insects, as well as other animals that undergo metamorphosis, face unique …

Facultative, heritable endosymbionts are found at intermediate prevalence within most
insect species, playing frequent roles in their hosts' defence against environmental …

Insects are the most abundant animals on Earth, and the microbiota within their guts play
important roles by engaging in beneficial and pathological interactions with these hosts. In …

Intracellular endosymbiotic bacteria are found in many terrestrial arthropods and have a
profound influence on host biology. A basic question about these symbionts is why they …

Introduction Ticks are the most common arthropod vectors of both human and animal
diseases in Europe, and the Ixodes ricinus tick species is able to transmit a large number of …

Symbiotic microbes have become increasingly recognized to mediate interactions between
natural enemies and their hosts. The ecologies of these symbioses, however, are poorly …

Ecological specialization to restricted diet niches is driven by obligate, and often maternally
inherited, symbionts in many arthropod lineages. These heritable symbionts typically form …

Butterflies are charismatic insects that have long been a focus of biological research. They
are also habitats for microorganisms, yet these microbial symbionts are little-studied, despite …

Vertically transmitted symbionts that protect their hosts against parasites and pathogens are
well known from insects, yet the underlying mechanisms of symbiont-mediated defense are …

Insect guts are often colonized by multispecies microbial communities that play integral roles
in nutrition, digestion and defence. Community composition can differ across host species …