We tested our hypothesis by exposing soil from the C. caryae cell to the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin. Beauveria spp., invade the insect host through the cuticle, replicate in the host hemocoel, and form external conidiophores to disperse their spores. These fungi are pathogenic to a variety of insects, including a number of curculionids and other coleopterans (Vega et al., 2012). B. bassiana serves as a good model organism for our study because the fungus is highly virulent to C. caryae and is commonly endemic in pecan orchardswhere C. caryae occurs (Shapiro-Ilan et al., 2003; Lacey and Shapiro-Ilan, 2008).