Good morning #BlueSky! On my way to work. Today a master intern will start her internship with me studying how insect-associated microbes influence Insect-plant interactions. #science
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This is totally apropos of nothing but I love that you have a Southern Green Shieldbug as your background image! (They are getting more common in my bit of UK and I am trying to discover more about their ecology!) (Sorry for the random comment but saw the image and said, "Yay!") Good luck to intern!
Thank you Sarah! I have been studying this insect species for the past 5 years since it is an emerging pest in the Netherlands as well. I’m especially focussed on their symbiotic microbes and how they help insects to overcome plant defenses. If I can be of any support to your research, let me know
Also, are there different communities of symbiotic microbes that enable different host plants to be used in different subpopulations? (Locally they seem to spend a lot of time on Bryonia dioica but I know most people rear them on Phaseolus...)
They can feed from pretty much everything, I rear them on solanum nigrum, Brassica nigra and Securigera varia plants next to soybean and sunflower seeds. Microbes seem to be supportive of the diet, we see shifts in the community when reared on one food source, our paper about this is in press ;-)
Oh, that's cool! Question we have been discussing: is the brown colour form a winter form similar to Palomina prasina, or is it a natural polymorphism seen year-round? I'd never seen them in brown before then saw 2 brown ones in the last fortnight.
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