Here the fungus proliferates throughout the insect’s body, producing toxins and draining the insects of nutrients, eventually killing it. Therefore, unlike bacterial and viral pathogens of insects, Beauveria and other fungal pathogens infect the insect with contact and do not need to be consumed by their host to cause infection. Once the fungus has killed it’s host, it grows back out through the softer portions of the cuticle, covering the insect with a layer of white mold (hence the name white muscadine disease). This downy mold produces millions of new infective spores that are released to the environment.