A New Proposed Symbiotic Plant-Herbivore Relationship between Trees, Caterpillars and Their Associated Fungi and .

is a tree found in savannah and woodland in southern Africa, as well as northwards into tropical African regions as far as Nigeria and Ethiopia. It is used as fuel wood, medicinally to treat various conditions, such as toothache, headache, migraine, pain, inflammation, and sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhoea, but also an ornamental tree. The current study investigated the possible symbiotic relationship between trees and the caterpillars and the mutual role played in ensuring the survival of . trees/seedlings in harsh natural conditions and low-nutrient soils. Deoxyribonucleic acid isolation and sequencing results revealed that the fungal species was highly predominant in the leaves of . trees and present in the caterpillars. The second most prominent fungal species in the caterpillars was . The latter is known to be related to a sp. which was found to be highly prevalent in the soil where trees grow and is suggested to play a role in enhancing the effective growth of . trees in their natural habitat. To support this, a phylogenetic analysis was conducted, and a tree was constructed, which shows a high percentage similarity between and sp. The findings of the study revealed that trees not only serve as a source of feed for the caterpillar but benefit from caterpillars which, after dropping onto the soil, is proposed to inoculate the soil surrounding the trees with the fungus which suggests a symbiotic and/or synergistic relationship between trees and caterpillars.