Caballeronia symbionts of caged Leptoglossus zonatus

The leaf-footed bug, Leptoglossus zonatus, depends upon early nymphal ingestion of the free-living, soilborne bacterium Caballeronia for growth and reproduction. We tested the hypothesis that Caballeronia is ubiquitous in the canopy environment by caging young nymphs on pomegranate trees in 2019 and 2020. We characterized and compared the symbiont composition of caged nymphs which were left to forage for the symbiont across these two years.