Beetlehangers

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Citizen science is an increasingly powerful tool to gather large quantities of biological data and to engage the public. The number of citizen science initiatives has rapidly increased in the last 15 years. Invasive alien species such as the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae), provide a particularly good opportunity for broad-scale use of such initiatives. Harmonia axyridis is parasitized by a fungus, Hesperomyces harmoniae (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales), that can be found throughout the range of its host. Beetlehangers.org is a website and data repository where we combine observations of He. harmoniae from literature, online databases, and citizen science initiatives, including new records of both Ha. axyridis and He. harmoniae. While Hesperomyces is the primary focus of the citizen science outreach right now, we envision Beetlehangers.org as an overall hub of Laboulbeniales in the future. We are also working together with FunDive (https://eu-citizen.science/project/621), a European-wide fungi diversity project.

Aim

While parasitic fungi on insects are very common, they are understudied and tend to go unnoticed by entomologists – who usually don’t look at fungi – and mycologists – who usually don’t collect insects. Many species are still undescribed and it’s often unclear in which habitats they thrive in. Hesperomyces is one such understudied taxa.

Probably the most common Hesperomyces species is Hesperomyces harmoniae, which parasites Harmonia axyridis, the harlequin ladybird. The harlequin ladybird is an invasive species originally from Eastern Asia which outcompetes local ladybirds, and is now very common around Europe – as also probably is its fungal parasite!

Reporting findings on Hesperomyces can enhance our understanding of the host-parasite interactions and the dynamics of invasive species.