Mechanical Vectors Enhance Fungal Entomopathogen Reduction of the Grasshopper Pest Camnula pellucida (Orthoptera: Acrididae).

Mounting scientific evidence indicates that pathogens can regulate insect populations. However, limited dispersal and sensitivity to abiotic conditions often restricts pathogen regulation of host populations. While it is well established that arthropod biological vectors increase pathogen incidence in host populations, few studies have examined whether arthropod mechanical vectors (an organism that transmits pathogens but is not essential to the life cycle of the pathogen) influence host-pathogen dynamics.