Incidence of infected Myzus persicae alatae trapped in flight imply place-to-place dissemination of entomophthoralean fungi in aphid populations through migration

Occurrence of entomopathogenic fungi in migratory alate aphids in Yunnan Province of China

“…Similar epizootic observations were made at other sites in China with aphids infecting wheat Feng and Chen 2002). Although entomopathogenic fungi are carried by their aphid hosts throughout the year, aphids remain problematic pests during cool dry season in Yunnan.…”

“…Entomophthorales, E. neoaphidis, Z. radicans, and C. obscurus, and Clavicipitaceae, B. bassiana were more predominant species found in the migratory aphids. Other researchers in China and elsewhere found migration of alate aphids and incidence of various fungal pathogens Feng and Chen 2002;Humber 1992). Although, far away from any cropped area, we trapped substantial number of specimens of major species of aphids, which are pest of vegetables and cereals.…”

“…Many species of aphids, however, produce alate forms. Migration of alate virus vectors help spread of virus disease epidemics (Maramorosch 1963;Gray and Banerjee 1999;Liu et al 2004), the potential of migratory alates to disseminate aphid entomopathogens was testified and reported by Feng and co-authors Feng and Chen 2002). Very little, however, is known about the dissemination of entomopathogenic fungi by migratory alate aphids and significance of such dissemination in causing disease epizootic.…”

Sitobion avenae alatae infected by Pandora neoaphidis: their flight ability, post-flight colonization, and mycosis transmission to progeny colonies

“…Effective methods have been developed to determine the frequencies of fungal pathogens borne by migratory alates Feng, 2002, 2004;Feng and Chen, 2002) and to measure the flight ability of infected alates . Among more than 7000 alates of cereal and vegetable aphids trapped from the air in three provinces of China and then individually reared for symptoms of mycoses, an overall proportion of $35% bear fungal pathogens.…”

Epizootiological Modeling of Pandora neoaphidis Mycosis Transmission in Myzus persicae Colonies Initiated by Primarily Infected Alates

“…A hypothesis that P. neoaphidis could be widely dispersed with the flight of their alates was thus proposed (15) and has been proven by recent findings that ca. 30% of thousands of airtrapped alates bear several species of fungal pathogens, including primarily P. neoaphidis (3,7,11). Infected aphids usually die from mycosis after a few days of infection development inside host hemocoel (6, 12, 13).…”