Mean colony diameter of <i>Beauveria bassiana</i> grown on agar (SDA) under different temperature regimes over 11 days.

<p>Different letters indicate significant differences between groups (Tukey post-hoc test with Bonferroni correction, <i>P</i><0.05). Bars represent ±1 SEM.</p

<b><i>An. stephensi</i></b> females become infected with <i>B. bassiana</i> following contact with spore-laden caterpillars.74% (34/46) of mosquitoes contacting the sporulating caterpillars vs. 8% (4/47) contacting the uninfected caterpillars exhibited <i>B. bassiana</i> sporulation after death.

<p>N = 46 and 47 females out of 60 tested that contacted the sporulating vs. the healthy-live caterpillars, respectively. Brackets denote ±95% binomial confidence intervals (C.I.). Asterisks indicate a significant difference of infection (***P≤0.001, Chi-square 2×2 test of independence).</p

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) measurements showing the mean (± S.E.) amount of CO₂ (ml CO₂/hr/gram of body weight) produced by infected and uninfected <i>Heliothis subflexa</i> fourth instar caterpillars during the days after infection, before they were killed by <i>Beauveria bassiana</i> infection.

<p>GLM was used to examine the difference between treatments (Uninfected and <i>Beauveria</i> infected, N = 7).</p

<i>An. stephensi</i> females are significantly more attracted in Y-tube choice experiments to <i>B. bassiana</i>-infected caterpillars than to uninfected caterpillars, whether they are alive or dead, sporulating or non-sporulating.

<p>(Left) percentage of female <i>An. stephensi</i> flying upwind to cadavers of 4^th-instar <i>H. subflexa</i> caterpillars that were infected with <i>B. bassiana</i> but not sporulating (dark bars) or were uninfected (light bars). (Center) percentage of females flying upwind to cadavers of <i>H. subflexa</i> caterpillars that either exhibited <i>B. bassiana</i> spores (dark bars) or were uninfected (light bars). (Right) percentage flying upwind to <i>B. bassiana</i>-infected but non-sporulating live <i>H. subflexa</i> caterpillars (dark bars) compared to uninfected live caterpillars (light bars). (***P<0.001; Chi-square 2×2 test of independence; N = 90).</p

Two-choice oviposition assays.

<p>Mean number (± SEM) of eggs laid by two-day old gravid female <i>L</i>. <i>ingenua</i> flies on various pure fungal cultures grown on potato dextrose agar in two-choice oviposition assays. Each horizontal bar shows the mean number of eggs laid on the two choices of fungi by 15 two-day-old gravid female flies, tested in groups of three in three individual chambers with 5 different cohorts of females being tested over 5 different nights. All data were non-normally distributed and differences between the mean number of eggs deposited on each pair of fungal cultures were analyzed via the Mann–Whitney <i>U</i> test (two-tailed, df = 14).</p

Photographs of typical <i>An. stephensi</i> females when released in groups in the presence of either live (A) or dead-sporulating (B) <i>H. subflexa</i> caterpillars.

<p>Following attraction to the caterpillars, the females land and probe them, sometimes engorging on caterpillar haemolymph (unpublished data). <b>A</b>) A healthy, uninfected <i>H. subflexa</i> 4^th-instar caterpillar. <b>B</b>) Several dead, sporulating <i>H. subflexa</i> caterpillars that had attracted <i>An. stephensi</i> females.</p

Dried fungal spores of <i>B. bassiana</i> and <i>M. anisopliae</i> are attractive to female <i>An. stephensi</i>, but spores of <i>B. bassiana</i> are more attractive than those of <i>M. anisopliae</i> or <i>Penicillium</i> spp.

<p><b>A)</b> Percentage of females attracted to 50 mg of dried spores of <i>B. bassiana, M. anisopliae,</i> or <i>Penicillium</i> spp. placed on a filter paper disc (dark bars) versus a blank disc (light bars) (N = 60 females in each comparison); <b>B)</b> Percentage of females attracted to the arm containing <i>B. bassiana</i> spores (dark bars) compared to the arm containing spores of either <i>M. anisopliae</i> or <i>Penicillium</i> (light bars) (N = 60 females in each comparison). Brackets denote ±95% binomial confidence intervals (C.I.). Asterisks indicate significant differences between attraction to treatment choice-pairs (Chi-square 2×2 test of independence; **P≤0.01; ***P≤0.001).</p

No-choice oviposition assays.

<p>Mean number (± SEM) of eggs laid by 0- (day of emergence) to-7 day-old female <i>L</i>. <i>ingenua</i> flies on various pure fungal cultures grown on potato dextrose agar in no-choice oviposition assays. A total of 15 flies of a particular age were tested for their tendency to lay eggs on each of the 8 fungal cultures under no-choice conditions, resulting in a total of 120 females (15 flies x 8 fungal cultures) of each age that were tested for oviposition on all fungal cultures. There were 8 age groups tested (panels a-h), and thus 840 different female flies were used in this experiment. All data were non-normally distributed and differences among mean egg numbers within each age group were analyzed via the Kruskal-Wallis test. Differences between mean egg numbers for each age group were compared using the Dunn’s Multiple Comparisons Test. No comparisons were made between mean numbers of eggs in different age groups. Different letters above histograms within the same age group indicate a significant difference (df = 14; P < 0.05).</p

Two-choice attraction assays.

<p>Mean number (± SEM) of two-day-old gravid female <i>Lycoriella ingenua</i> flies attracted to various pure fungal cultures grown on potato dextrose agar in two-choice, static-flow olfactometer assays. Each horizontal bar is the mean of responses of 5 females to each treatment over 12 replicates (N = 12). The mean number of non-responders (± SEM) for each combination is included in parentheses to the right. Female choices for each pair of cultures were analyzed via chi square. All non-responders were excluded from the analysis.</p

Larval survival assays.

<p>Mean survival (± SEM) of <i>Lycoriella ingenua</i> larvae to adults on various pure fungal cultures grown on potato dextrose agar. Each histogram is the mean survival of 5 newly emerged first instar larvae, replicated from 6 different cohorts of larvae. All data were non-normally distributed and differences among mean survival on different fungal cultures were first analyzed via the Kruskal-Wallis test. Differences between survival on different fungal cultures were compared with the Dunn’s Multiple Comparisons Test. Different letters above bars indicate a significant difference (df = 5; P < 0.05).</p