Pathogenicity of bacterial isolates to Cyclocephala signaticollis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

CONSOLO, V. F.; MUCCI, V.; SALERNO G.L.; BERÓN, C.M.

BIOCONTROL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Taylor & Francis

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2010 vol. 20 p. 475 - 482

0958-3157

In many regions of the world, root-feeding white grubs cause significant damage to many agricultural crops (Alvarado 1980; Iannone 2006). In southeastern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, Cyclocephala signaticollis Burmeister (Coleoptera:Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) is the most damaging potato pest (Mondino, López, Alvarez Castillo, and Carmona 1997). The prevailing method for white grub control involves the application of chemical insecticides as organochlorides, but the development of insect resistance, the emergence of secondary pests, the impact on non-target organisms, environmental pollution, and residues on the agriculture products and animals have increased interest in alternative strategies (Jackson 1999). Sustainable agriculture will increasingly rely on alternative interventions for pest management that are environmentally friendly and will minimize the use of chemical pesticides (Lacey, Frutos, Kaya, and Vails 2001). In particular, some bacterial species are pathogenic to specific white grub larvae and are used in biological control programs (Jackson 1992): for example, Paenibacillus popilliae, against Popilia japonica (Ogiwara et al. 1995), Serratia entomophila and S. proteamaculans against Costelytra zealandica (Trought, Jackson, and French 1982; Hurst, Glare, Jackson, and Ronson 2000), and Xenorhabdus spp. or Photorhabdus spp. that are vectored by entomopathogenic nematodes (Kaya and Gaugler 1993). We describe the isolation, identification and pathogenicity of bacterial isolates to C. signaticollis third instar larvae.