XVI International Botanical Congess
Numerous species of fungi are dispersed by flying insects, and they include plant, animal, and fungus parasites. Some, but not all, of these fungi are essential to the nutrition of the insects. These fungi include forest pathogens, and a few cause potentially fatal diseases in mammals, including humans. Precise timing of intricate life histories is a characteristic of the dispersal systems. The fungi may be transported as yeast-like morphs in specialized pouches within the exoskeleton or inside the gut, in others, specialized dispersal states attach to the external insect surfaces. Reliable dispersal by insects with the ability to seek out a specific substrate guarantees that the fungus will reach its preferred substrate every time, and selection for specialization on a substrate is reinforced.