Wolbachia, Rickettsia, Spiroplasma and Cardinium are endosymbiotic and intracellular
bacteria known to cause numerous disorders in host reproduction, reflected in their common
name “male-killers”. In this study, 297 beetle species from various taxonomic groups were
screened with the use of molecular markers for the presence of infection by any of these
endosymbionts. Wolbachia was found to be the most common “male-killer” among beetle
hosts as it infected approx. 27% of species. Rickettsia, Spiroplasma and Cardinium were
much less prevalent as they infected: 8%, 3% and 2%, respectively, of the studied beetle
species. This is the first report of Cardinium presence in beetle hosts. Incidences of
co-infection of two bacteria taxa were very rare and only two weevil species were found to be
infected by three different bacteria. These findings suggest that endosymbiotic bacteria
inhabit their host at various levels of prevalence and that particular taxa usually infect
different hosts, suggesting some competition among “male-killers”. This is the first study
that simultaneously verifies infection status by all major endosymbiotic bacteria in hundreds
of species (based on coleopterans).