Many insects have bacterial associates known as "symbionts" that profoundly influence their biology and ecology. Our project investigates a serious pest of pomegranate (and occasional pest of pistachio and almonds), Leptoglossus zonatus, a leaf-footed bug, and its relationship with its obligate bacterial symbiont Burkholderia. Unusually, the bug juvenile or nymph must acquire the symbiont from the environment before it has progressed beyond the second or third instar stage. If it does not, it experiences severe delays in development and high rates of mortality. In our project, we will investigate the relationship between the bug and its symbiont, with the goal of discovering potential vulnerabilities in the biology of the pest that we might be able to exploit for pest management. We will a) look at the relative abundance and spatial structure of Burkholderia in the environment and relate that to the relative abundance of strains in the bugs to answer the question: Do bugs select strains of their symbiont, or can they be predicted solely by what is the most abundant in the environment. We will also b) relate the prevalence of particular strains of Burkholderia to the relative fitness or benefit of those strains to the bug. Are the strains that are most abundant the ones that benefit the bug the most, or not? We will also c) investigate transmission of the symbiont. While we know the symbiont is in the soil, these arboreal bugs never touch the soil - do bugs in the trees have trouble accessing the symbiont, or not? Lastly, we know that the symbiont can evolve to degrade particular pesticides, and bugs that acquire those degrading symbionts become themselves resistance to the pesticide. We will conduct experimental evolution of the Burkholderia strains to determine if two other common pesticides used in the orchard can also be overcome by acquired resistance by the symbiont. If so, we can have forewarning of this potential in the orchard system.