Do Biotic and Abiotic Factors Influence the Prevalence of a Common Parasite of the Invasive Alien Ladybird Harmonia axyridis?

Hesperomyces virescens (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales), a fungal ectoparasite, is thus far reported on Harmonia axyridis from five continents: North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia. While it known that He. can cause mortality of Ha. under laboratory conditions, the role biotic abiotic factors in influencing distribution field unknown. We collected screened 3,568 adult 23 locations seven countries Central Europe between October November 2018 to test effect selected host characters climate landscape variables infection probability with . Mean parasite prevalence was 17.9%, ranging among samples 0 46.4%. Host sex, climate, composition did not have any significant Two color forms, f. conspicua spectabilis , had significantly lower compared common novemdecimsignata