Field and laboratory studies on the pathogenicity of the fungus Beauveria bassiana to three genera of mosquitoes

Stable Chromosomal Inversion Polymorphisms and Insecticide Resistance in the Malaria Vector MosquitoAnopheles gambiae(Diptera: Culicidae)

“…In laboratory tests the fungus proved virulent against larvae of Culex pipiens, Culex tarsalis, Culex tritaeniorhynchus and Anopheles albimanus, but was ineffective against Aedes aegypti, Ochlerotatus sierrensis (Clark et al 1968;Sandhu et al 1993;Geetha and Balaraman 1999), and Culex quinquefasciatus (Alves et al 2002). Susceptible species were prone to infection only shortly after molting.…”

“…Besides infecting larvae, the fungus proved to be virulent to adult mosquitoes as well, although no Beauveria-infected adult mosquitoes have been reported from the field. In laboratory tests against adult Culex tarsalis, Culex pipiens, Aedes aegypti, Ochlerotatus sierrensis, Ochlerotatus nigromaculis (Ludlow), and Anopheles albimanus, conidia of Beauveria bassiana produced 100% mortality within 5 days after exposure, while less than 50% occurred in corresponding controls (Clark et al 1968). In laboratory tests 82% of adult Anopheles gambiae were infected, with an LT 50 of 3.5 days, against 8.8 days from the control group (Scholte et al 2003).…”

“…Although the genus has a very broad host range (Roberts 1974), the natural occurrence of Beauveria on mosquitoes has been reported only four times, three of which were Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin, two cases were mentioned by Clark et al (1968) infecting Culex tarsalis, Culex pipiens and Anopheles albimanus, and one by Pinnock et al (1973), infecting Ochlerotatus sierrensis (the original paper used the synonym Beauveria tenella (Delacroix)). The other species was Beauveria brongniartii (Saccardo) Petch, causing the only known epizootic of this genus in mosquitoes in a field population of Ochlerotatus sierrensis (Pinnock et al 1973).…”

<I>Coelomomyces numularius</I> sp. nov. (Blastocladiales: Coelomomycetaceae), a New Fungal Parasite of <I>Anopheles squamosus</I> (Diptera: Culicidae) from Angola, Africa

“…In laboratory tests 82% of adult Anopheles gambiae were infected, with an LT 50 of 3.5 days, against 8.8 days from the control group (Scholte et al 2003). Outdoor tests against adult Ochlerotatus nigromaculis in screen cages were less successful, yielding only 58% mortality (Clark et al 1968). In this case, the fact that adults rested on the screen walls of their test cages, rather than in the dusted grass that had been provided, may explain the low mortality.…”

“…If infection occurred shortly before molting, the mycelium was lost within the molt. In three small-scale outdoor tests with conidia of Beauveria bassiana, reductions of 82, 95 and 69% were found on Culex pipiens larvae and pupae after two weeks (Clark et al 1968). Studies on tree holes treated with blastoconidia (5 x 10 3 or 5 x 10 5 conidia ml -1 water) of Beauveria brongniartii delivered reductions between 53 and 71% of emerging adult Ochlerotatus sierrensis (Pinnock et al 1973).…”