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However, white grubs (reaching 40–45 mm long when full grown) live in the soil and feed on plant roots, especially those of grasses and cereals, and are occasional pests in pastures, nurseries, gardens, and golf courses. An obvious indication of infestation is the presence of birds, such as crows, peeling back the grass to get to the grubs.
It is responsible for a disease (commonly called milky spore) of the white grubs of Japanese beetles. The adult Japanese beetles pupate in July (in the Northeast United States) and feed on flowers and leaves of shrubs and garden plants. During this adult stage, the beetles also mate and the females lay eggs in the soil in late July to early August.
Within 14 days, the ants are covered in the bacteria, where they are stored in crypts and cavities found in the exoskeletons. The bacteria produce small molecules that can prevent the growth of a specialized fungus garden pathogen. [33] Attine ants have very specialized diets, which seem to reduce their microbiotic diversity. [74] [75] [76] [77]
The grubs develop in the earth for three to four years, in colder climates even five years, and grow continually to a size of about 4–5 cm, before they pupate in early autumn and develop into an adult cockchafer in six weeks. [6] The cockchafer overwinters in the earth at depths between 20 and 100 cm. They work their way to the surface only ...
B. bassiana is a white mould when grown on culture, producing white spore balls made up of many conidia that are single-celled, haploid, and hydrophobic. [8] [9] The short, ovoid conidiogenous cells that produce the conidia have a narrow apical extension called a rachis, which elongates into a long zig-zag extension.
The eggs are white and about 3 mm in diameter. The larvae are the typical C-shaped white grubs of scarab beetles. The three larval stages can be separated by the size of their head capsule which is around 2.5–3 mm (first instar), 5–6 mm (second instar) and 10–11 mm (third instar), respectively.
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