It is often taken for granted that all animals host and depend upon a microbiome, yet this has
only been shown for a small proportion of species. We propose that animals span a …

The application of high‐throughput sequencing‐based approaches to DNA extracted from
environmental samples such as gut contents and faeces has become a popular tool for …

Many animals depend on microbial symbionts to provide nutrition, defence or other services.
Holometabolous insects, as well as other animals that undergo metamorphosis, face unique …

Nitrogen acquisition is a major challenge for herbivorous animals, and the repeated origins
of herbivory across the ants have raised expectations that nutritional symbionts have shaped …

Insect invasions, the establishment and spread of nonnative insects in new regions, can
have extensive economic and environmental consequences. Increased global connectivity …

Sustaining beneficial gut symbioses presents a major challenge for animals, including
holometabolous insects. Social insects may meet such challenges through partner fidelity …

Abundance is a key parameter in microbial ecology, and important to estimates of potential
metabolite flux, impacts of dispersal, and sensitivity of samples to technical biases such as …

Eusociality, a form of animal social organization involving sterile and reproductive castes, is
a rare, but highly ecologically successful form of life. There are striking examples of eusocial …

Background Microbial communities that inhabit the mosquito body play an import role in host
biology and may have potential for mosquito control. However, the forces that shape these …

Stable core microbial communities have been described in numerous animal species and
are commonly associated with fitness benefits for their hosts. Recent research, however …