Occurrence of entomopathogenic fungi in atlantic forest soils

Abstract

Knowledge of the composition and distribution of native entomopathogenic fungal species are essential to evaluate the potential of biological control in a given ecosystem. In this study, 10 soil samples were collected in two seasons (dry and rainy) in the Curió Municipal Natural Park in Paracambi and the presence of entomopathogenic fungi species was evaluated. The isolation was carried out using two methods: the bait method with Galleria mellonella and Tenebrio molitor larvae and the selective media Agar Potato Dextrose method supplemented with insect integument (PDA+IT) and Martin medium. A total of 216 isolates of entomopathogenic fungi were isolated. The bait method with larvae collected 88.0%, while the PDA+IT media and Martin method caught 12.0%. The most predominant species was Beauveria bassiana isolated with G. mellonella in the dry (36.0%) and in the rainy (36.0%) season. Metarhizium anisopliae was isolated, mostly in T. molitor in the dry (33.3%) and in the rainy (32.0%) season. Beauveria bassiana was less prevalent in the Martin medium, occurring 13.3% in the dry and 33.3% in the rainy season. The occurrence of B. bassiana using the PDA+IT medium was 33.3% in the dry and 20.0% in the rainy season. The higher incidence of M. anisopliae (26.7%) was in the rainy season with the PDA+IT medium. The higher incidence of entomopathogenic fungi was observed using the bait method with high frequencies of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae. The bait method with G. mellonella and T. molitor is a sensitive method for the isolation of entomopathogenic fungi in soil.

Abundance of Entomopathogenic Fungi in Leaf Litter and Soil Layers in Forested Habitats in Poland

“…The dominance of B. bassiana in soils collected from various types of forests is also confirmed by studies conducted in Denmark [37], Finland [7], Poland [27,35,38,39], Japan [40], Italy [41,42] Spain [43,44], Austria [45], Mexico [46], Brasil [47] and Portugal [48]. Niemczyk et al [21], examining the occurrence of Beauveria spp.…”

Sublethal effects of different fungal isolates on Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

“…The maintenance of this virulence above the levels of the enzyme production may also be related to the genetic diversity of these fungi, which may be influenced by the habitat in which each isolate was obtained (Mora et al 2016). A research comparing the location and isolation method showed that fungi isolated from soil resulted to a high mortality rate of H. armigera caterpillars (Kalvnadi et al 2018).…”

Larvicidal potentials of Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces sp on Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Very little information exists on the isolation of entomopathogenic fungi for the control of insect pests in Nigeria, but the use of entomopathogenic Fungi for the control of Mosquito has long been recognized from different part of the world [25,15,6,9]. Moreover, this fungus specie isolated from soil had been previously detected in the soil from different part of the world along with some of the most widely used groups of fungal pathogens such as Beauveria bassiana [26][27]. The results of this study indicate that, Entomopathogenic fungi; M. anisopliae was pathogenic to 4th instars larvae of C. quinquefasciatus and percentage mortality reaches 90%.…”