New records of entomopathogenic fungi infecting Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum, pests of horticultural crops, in Argentina

SCORSETTI, A.C.; HUMBER, R.A.; DE GREGORIO, C.; LÓPEZ LASTRA, C.C.

BIOCONTROL (DORDRECHT)

Springer

Año: 2007 p. 1 - 10

1386-6141

Abstract The whiteflies Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) are major crop pests throughout the world. Although extensive research about biological control of whitefly by parasitoids and predators has been conducted, also entomopathogenic fungi can be considered as potential biological control agents. Surveys for entomopathogenic fungi were carried out in organic and conventional horticultural crops in greenhouses and open fields in Buenos Aires and Corrientes provinces, Argentina. These surveys resulted in the recovery and isolation of the following fungi from whiteflies: Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimmerm.) Zare & W. Gams, L. muscarium (Petch) Zare & W. Gams, L. longisporum (Petch) Zare & W. Gams, Isaria fumosorosea Wize and I. javanica (Frieder. & Bally) Samson & Hywel-Jones. Pathogenicity tests were conducted against T. vaporariorum nymphs using a conidial suspension (1 x 107 conidia/ml) of the fungi. A mortality rate between 26.6% and 76.6% was obtained at 7 days post-infection. These are the first records of natural infections in the southern- most region of the South American continent of L. lecanii, L. muscarium, L. longisporum and Isaria javanica (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) on T. vaporariorum and also the first report of I. fumosorosea on B. tabaci. Keywords Aleyrodidae - Ascomycota - Biological control - Fungal entomopathogens - Horticultural crops - Hypocreales - Isaria spp. - Lecanicillium spp. - Paecilomyces spp. - Verticillium spp. - Whiteflies