Heterorhabditis sp. was present in one EC grub of several hundred, from 18 sites. Heterorhabditis -infected JB , adult nematodes visible. There are two groups of microsporidea in which we're particluarly interested. Ovavesicula popilliae, discovered in the '80's by Hanula and Andreadis, is specific to Japanese beetle. It is widespread in CT, rare in MI, and unstudied elsewhere.
Gregarines are very common in scarab grubs.
Over half of our JB sites, and a third of EC sites have grubs with gregarine infection. Phyllophaga spp . It is unclear yet what effect gregarines have on their hosts. We're currently working with Richard Clopton of Peru University to identify the species. Ovavesicula , sporophorous vesicles.