Selection of Native Mexican Strains of Beauveria bassiana1 with Larvicidal Potential against Aedes aegypti2

Larval Mortality and Ovipositional Preference in Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) Induced by the Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae)

“…The LC 50 values for second- and third-instar Ae. albopictus in the current study were similar to the median lethal concentrations calculated by de Luna-Santillana et al (2020) at 7–8 d with 10 5 –10 6 conidia/ml. The LC 50 values calculated by Alcalde-Mosqueira et al (2014) and Montoya-Treviño et al (2008) were both higher than the current findings LC 50 of 2.43 × 10 5 conidia/ml, as they reported LC 50 values of 3.6 × 10 6 conidia/ml and 3.86 × 10 6 conidia/ml, respectively.…”

“…The current experiment used both second- and third-instar larvae hatched at the same time, and the second instars may have survived exposure to a higher concentration due to molting soon after exposure to the fungus. Several environmentally sampled strains of B. bassiana have been shown to require higher concentrations of conidia to cause equivalent pathogenicity ( Vivekanandhan et al 2018 , de Luna-Santillana et al 2020 ). For example, B. bassiana sampled from southern Indian soils was used in a larval bioassay involving Ae.…”

“…Within the past ten years, research has routinely evaluated B. bassiana and other entomopathogenic fungi toxicity in adult mosquitoes and found high rates of mortality using different infection protocols ( Darbro et al 2012 , Jaber et al 2016 , Buckner et al 2017 , Lee et al 2019 , de Luna-Santillana et al 2020 , Shoukat et al 2020 , Vivekanandhan et al 2020 ). One experiment sprayed a 1 × 10 8 conidia/ml suspension of various isolates of B. bassiana into a cage with Ae.…”

“…albopictus in the two developmental stages ( Deng et al 2017 , 2019a ). Studies evaluating mosquito larval mortality after exposure to various strains of B. bassiana or secondary metabolites produced by the fungus aim to reduce the vector population before adulthood and therefore reduce the risk of disease transmission ( Clark et al 1968 , Miranpuri and Khachatourians 1991 , Montoya-Treviño et al 2008 , Alcalde-Mosqueira et al 2014 , Daniel et al 2016 , Deng et al 2017 , Vivekanandhan et al 2018 , Deng et al 2019a , de Luna-Santillana et al 2020 , Vivekanandhan et al 2020 ). Additionally, the mortality rates in adult Aedes exposed to B. bassiana varied between 60% and 100%, depending on the length of study and exposure amount, with most studies reporting 80–90% mortality rates ( de Paula et al 2008 , Darbro et al 2012 , Deng et al 2019b , Lee et al 2019 , de Luna-Santillana et al 2020 , Shoukat et al 2020 ).…”