Ecological Ramifications of Defensive Symbiosis in an Invasive Aphid Pest

Dr. White will be primarily responsible for screening all A. craccivora populations for the presence of H. defensa and other bacterial endosymbionts. Additionally, Dr. White will be responsible for collecting and maintaining A. craccivora populations from multiple US populations, transmitting emerged parasitoids to co-PIs Heimpel and Asplen for identification, and transmitting H. defensa-infected A. craccivora to co-PI Pliver. Finally, Dr. White will be responsible for conducting correlative community analyses of symbiont infection and parasitism across populations.