Soil Application of Metarhizium anisopliae JEF-314 Granules to Control, Flower Chafer Beetle, Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis

Abstract

Root-feeding Scarabaeidae, particularly white grubs are considered among the most harmful coleopteran insect pests in turfgrass. In this work, sixteen entomopathogenic fungal species were assayed against flower chafer beetle, Protaetia brevitarsis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and Metarhizium anisopliae JEF-314 showed high virulence. The control ability of the isolate JEF-314 has been in detail tested for a model insect flower chafer beetle. Further analyses showed insect stage-dependent virulence where the fungal virulence was the highest against smaller instar larvae. Additionally, we confirmed that millet-based solid cultured granule was effective against the soil-dwelling larval stage. The isolate also showed a similar ability for a representative pest (Popillia spp.) in laboratory conditions. Our results clearly suggest a high potential of M. anisopliae JEF-314 to control the flower chafer beetle, possibly resulting in controlling of root-feeding white grubs in turfgrass. Based on the insect life cycle and susceptibility to the fungus, late spring and summer time would be the optimum time to apply JEF-314 granules for an effective control. Further characterization of the efficacy of the fungus under field conditions against the Scarabaeidae beetles might provide an efficient tool to control this beetle in an environment-friendly way.

Development of a fluid‐bed coating process for soil‐granule‐based formulations of Metarhizium brunneum , Cordyceps fumosorosea or Beauveria bassiana

“…Kim et al . (2020) confirmed that millet‐based solid cultured granules of M. anisopliae were effective against soil‐dwelling pest insects. Conidiation is highly influenced by the composition of nutrients.…”

Identification and field verification of an aggregation pheromone from the white-spotted flower chafer, Protaetia brevitarsis Lewis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

“…In the two-choice arena without food, the beetles of both sexes flew and crawled around the arena continually, resulting in no significant preference to 4-methylanisole (unpublished data). Inspired from the phenomenon that WSFC aggregations are always observed on their food 1 , 17 , 20 , we deduced that WSFCs release aggregation pheromone when they find suitable food sources. In each compartment of the arena, we added odorless agar-gel as food or residence place for WSFCs (Fig.…”

“…It is well known that Cetoniinae beetles, the most frequent flower visitors, not only play an important role in plant pollination 32 – 34 but also are serious pests of flowers and fruits because they usually attack and feed on blooming flowers and ripe fruits 35 . Polyphagous WSFC adults feed on the flowers and fruits of dozens of plant species 1 , resulting in the possibility that 4-methylanisole identified from WSFC volatiles originated in their foods sources. To control for this, we fed the WSFCs in volatile collection with only water.…”

“…The white-spotted flower chafer (WSFC), Protaetia brevitarsis Lewis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) (NCBI: txid348688) is native to East-Asia and distributed throughout Japan, Korea, Mongolia and China 1 . Since its larvae usually feed on humus and decomposed plant tissues in topsoil 2 , WSFCs are cultivated as a potential resource insect to produce high-quality organic fertilizer by converting herbaceous and ligneous plant residues 3 , 4 .…”

Ultrastructural analysis of beetle larva cuticles during infection with the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana

“…Entomopathogenic fungi (EPFs), such as species of Beauveria , Metarhizium , Isaria (recently named Akanthomyces ), and Lecanicillium , have been considered as biocontrol agents for the management of agricultural, forest, and ornamental insect pests to overcome chemical pesticide‐mediated resistance, environmental toxicity, and residual issues 1 . EPFs have relatively broad host spectrums, but their pathogenicity and virulence are varied depending on the species and even different strains of the same species 2 . During infection by EPFs, they need to overcome the host insect self‐defense, including the exoskeleton/cuticle and the innate immune system.…”