Pathogenicity of native isolates of entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria and Metharizium genera on Microcerotermes diversus
- PDF / 624,471 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 203 Views
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Pathogenicity of native isolates of entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria and Metharizium genera on Microcerotermes diversus (Blattodea: Termitidae) in the laboratory Haydar Al-Farhani 1 & Reyhaneh Darsouei 1 & Shokoofeh Kamali 1 & Gholamhossein Moravvej 1 & Javad Karimi 1 Received: 19 July 2019 / Revised: 20 October 2020 / Accepted: 23 October 2020 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2020
Abstract Microcerotermes diversus Silvestri (Blattodea: Termitidae) is a worldwide destructive termite whose control by conventional methods is often difficult. Biological control using entomopathogenic fungi could be an alternative management strategy. Two species of entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana, isolated from natural habitats of Mashhad and Lahijan regions, Iran. The fungi were characterized based on sequences of ITS gene as well as classic data. Then, the infectivity of both isolates of M. anisopliae and B. bassiana in different concentrations (1 × 104, 1 × 105, 1 × 106, 1 × 107, and 1 × 108 conidia/ml) were evaluated under laboratory conditions by two methods, including spray and pipetting against termite, M. diversus. Both entomopathogenic fungi species were capable of infecting and killing M. divesrus. In the pipetting method, the LC50 value for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae calculated 8.03 × 105 (conidia/ml) and 1.03 × 106 (conidia/ml), respectively. But in the spray method, the effect of M. anisopliae on M. diversus was more than B. bassiana. The LC50 value in the spray method for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae was 3.52 × 107 (conidia/ml) and 1.65 × 106 (conidia/ml). The mortality caused by the fungus was dose-dependent, with the highest mortality recorded at the highest concentration. In the pipetting method, the mortality rate for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae was 0 to 97.5% and 0 to 100% at 8 day post infection. In the spray method, the mortality percentage for B. bassiana was from 2.5 to 72.5% and for M. anisopliae was 0 to100% by 4 days post-infection. The results of this study indicated that B. bassiana and M. anisopliae are potentially useful biological control agents for M. diversus. Future studies with field trails will provide a confident approach toward termite management. Keywords Entomopathogenic fungi . Beauveria bassiana . Insect pathology . Metarhizium anisopliae . Termites
Introduction Termites (Isoptera) are critical foresty, agriculture, and household pests (Balachander et al. 2009). They damage dead woody materials (Balachander et al. 2009). Sometimes, their activity can cause severe economic damage (Rath 2000). Prevention of termite damage is complicated because their population is very high, and their cryptic behavior. The important genera of termites in Iran are Amitermes, Microcerotermes (Termitidae), Anacanthotermes (Hodotermitidae), and Psammotermes (Rhinotermitidae) (Cheraghi et al. 2013). Previously, it has been indicated that * Javad Karimi [email protected] 1
Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Ferdowsi Univ
Data Loading...
