pygmaeus [24] is more likely related to the presence of Wolbachia rather than the Rickettsia species. The impact of the Rickettsia species on the biology of Macrolophus bugs is as yet unclear. A bio-assay was performed to examine differences in development and fecundity between an endosymbiont-infected and a cured population of M. pygmaeus. In accordance with the findings of Chiel el al. [59] on the tobacco whitefly B. tabaci, nymphal development of infected individuals was faster (albeit in the current study only for males), but fecundity was not affected. On the other hand,

Himler et al. [60] check details demonstrated the rapid Lonafarnib order spread and fixation of a southwest American whitefly population infected with Rickettsia bellii. This population dominated all other populations by large fitness advantages and a higher proportion of females. Although the proportion of females was also higher in the infected M. pygmaeus population in our study (Table 4), the observed effects do not allow to explain the Rickettsia fixation in Macrolophus.. The Rickettsia symbiont of the booklouse L. bostrychophila is essential for the development of the embryos [24]. Conversely, cured M. pygmaeus adults produce normal progeny, confirming the facultative secondary character of Rickettsia in this host. Theoretically,

the Rickettsia endosymbionts could have invaded its Macrolophus host by ‘hitchhiking’ with the AZD1080 order CI-inducing Wolbachia endosymbiont, as CI promotes females with multiple infections [61]. Besides influencing developmental and reproductive parameters, microbial endosymbionts can affect their host in various other of ways, e.g. by being nutritional mutualists. Recently, Wolbachia has been shown to provide a positive fitness effect in iron-restricted diets [62]. Also, the so-called ‘symbiont-mediated protection’ is an emerging topic [2, 3, 59]: here, insects are protected against pathogens (including viruses [51, 63] and fungi [64]) or parasitoids (e.g. the braconid

wasp Aphidius in aphids [65]) by vertically transmitted symbionts (reviewed in [3]). This protection could be a potential system for endosymbionts to preserve their infection. To clarify the impact of the individual endosymbiont species, their hosts can be partially cured, yielding singly infected individuals. White et al. [66] used low dose antibiotics to partially cure the doubly infected parasitoid wasp Encarsia inaron. This wasp needed to be cured of Wolbachia and Cardinium, two endosymbionts belonging to two different classes, the Alpha-proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes respectively. However, Rickettsia and Wolbachia belong to the same family (Rickettsiaceae), which would complicate partial curing in Macrolophus. The role of Wolbachia and Rickettsia in M. caliginosus has not been demonstrated.