Selection for entomopathogenic fungi and LD50 of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok. for the Lesser Mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Abstract

The pathogenicity of insect-pathogenic hyphomycetous isolates to the lesser mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) was tested in this study. Thirty isolates of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin, Paecilomyces amoenoroseus (Hennings), P. fumosoroseus (Wize) Brown & Smith, P. lilacinus (Thom) Samson, P. tenuipes (Petch) Samson, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin, and M. anisopliae var. acridum were initially screened by sprinkling dry conidia onto adult A. diaperinus or by allowing adults to walk on Petri dishes with sporulating fungal isolates. The two most virulent isolates, CNPSo-Ma352 (M. anisopliae) and CNPSo-Ma356 (M. anisopliae), killed 30% and 26.7% of the dry-conidia treated adults, respectively. These two isolates were selected for LD 50 bioassays. LD 50 of CNPSo-Ma352 was 4.5 x 10 4 conidia per larva, and 2.1 x 10 5 conidia per adult, and for strain CNPSo-Ma356, LD 50 was 2.2 x 10 4 conidia per larva and 1.3 x 10 5 conidia per adult. Larvae were 5-6 times more susceptible than adults. A larger number of conidia required to cause 50% mortality in insect evaluates, suggesting the reduced susceptibility of A. diaperinus to entomopathogenic fungi. Nevertheless, these and other strains of fungus offer an alternative method for controlling of lesser mealworm in poultry houses when associated to integrated management.

Advances and Perspectives of the use of the entomopathogenic fungi beauveria bassiana and metarhizium anisopliae for the control of arthropod pests in poultry production

“…Chernaki- Leffer et al (2007) observed in two isolates of M. anisopliae values higher than 104 conidia for larvae and 10 5 conidia for adult lesser mealworms. The study showed that, under the evaluated conditions, a large amount of conidia was required to kill the insects, which poses a problem for field application.…”

“…However, information on the lethal dose of fungi are still lacking; only the aforementioned study of Chernaki-Leffer et al (2007) investigated the number of conidia required to kill 50% of the insects. As for B. bassiana, no studies on its lethal dose were found.…”

Development of pull and push–pull systems for management of lesser mealworm, Alphitobius diaperinus, in poultry houses using alarm and aggregation pheromones

“…Additionally, due to the cryptic behaviour of this pest, insecticide control is usually not effective . In recent years, several alternative methods for lesser mealworm control have been proposed, with the aim of minimizing the use of insecticides and enhancing the quality of the food that is being produced . Semiochemicals, mainly pheromones, have been suggested for use in monitoring and controlling A. diaperinus in poultry houses .…”

Effect of Disinfectants and Pesticides Used in Poultry Houses on Beauveria Bassiana (Bals.) Vuill.fungus

“…However, many natural enemies of the lesser mealworm are found in poultry houses, including predators and entomopathogenic fungi (Alves et al, 2004;Santoro et al, 2010). The potential of such fungi for lesser mealworm control was demonstrated both under laboratory and field conditions (Geden et al, 1998;Rohde et al, 2006, Chernaki et al, 2007. In addition, it is safe for poultry (Hass et al, 2010).…”