First survey of arthropod gut fungi and associates from Vieques, Puerto Rico

Abstract

This is the first survey of trichomycetes for Vieques, Puerto Rico. Several types of arthropods, including millipedes, crabs, mosquitoes, bloodworms, amphipods and isopods, were collected from marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats and their guts examined for the presence of trichomycetes. A new species of Enterobryus, which was found attached to the gut of the millipede Anadenobolus arboreus (Diplopoda), is described as Enterobryus viequensis sp. nov. We report the presence of Smittium culisetae in mosquito larvae and also provide information on two eccrinids associated with the fiddler crabs Uca rapax and U. burgersi and an amphipod.

• biogeography
• Caribbean
• Eccrinales
• endosymbiont
• taxonomy

We thank NSF Award DEB-0615510 for financial support. We appreciate the support of Oscar Diaz, Matt Connolly, Mike Barandiaran and the Department of Fish and Wildlife in Vieques for kindly letting us set up our lab in their facilities and for all their assistance. We are grateful for the assistance of Antonio Perez Asso, who helped with identification of the millipedes, Manuel Rivera, who identified crab species, and Carlos J. Santos, who identified mosquito larvae. Also we thank Dr Duane Kolterman for the Latin translation, Jose Almodóvar for his help in the microscopy lab and Donato Seguí with field samples. Kristin R. Peterson provided suggestions that improved the manuscript.