Publications

can alternative sugar sources buffer pollinators from nectar shortages?	honeydew is abundant in many ecosystems and may provide an alternative food source (a buffer) for pollinators during periods of food shortage, but the impact of honeydew on pollination systems has received little attention to date. in new zealand, kānuka trees (myrtaceae: kunzea ericoides (a. rich) joy thompson) are often heavily infested by the endemic honeydew-producing scale insect coelostomidia wairoensis (maskell) (hemiptera: coelostomidiidae) and the period of high honeydew production can ...	2014	25368982
diverse honeydew-consuming fungal communities associated with scale insects.	sooty mould fungi are ubiquitous, abundant consumers of insect-honeydew that have been little-studied. they form a complex of unrelated fungi that coexist and compete for honeydew, which is a chemically complex resource. in this study, we used scanning electron microscopy in combination with t-rflp community profiling and its-based tag-pyrosequencing to extensively describe the sooty mould community associated with the honeydews of two ecologically important new zealand coelostomidiid scale inse ...	2013	23922978
ultrastructural and molecular characterization of a bacterial symbiosis in the ecologically important scale insect family coelostomidiidae.	scale insects are important ecologically and as agricultural pests. the majority of scale insect taxa feed exclusively on plant phloem sap, which is carbon rich but deficient in essential amino acids. this suggests that, as seen in the related aphids and psyllids, scale insect nutrition might also depend upon bacterial symbionts, yet very little is known about scale insect-bacteria symbioses. we report here the first identification and molecular characterization of symbiotic bacteria associated ...	2012	22468989