Abstract
Beauveria bassiana is a promising fungus for the biological control of insect pests. The growing costs of conidia production have raised the need to ascertain the efficiency of some low cost substrates. The aim of this study was to analyze the potential use of different raw substrates without nutritional supplement for B. bassiana conidiogenesis. Growth and sporulation were evaluated using 30 g of substrate and 0.3 μL of a conidia suspension (1 x 106 conidia/mL). After 10 days of incubation (70 ± 10% humidity and temperature (T) = 29 ± 1 °C), rice (2.00 x 106 conidia/g substrate), algaroba (2.36 x 106 conidia/g), malt A (1.22 x 106 conidia/g) and malt B (1.75 x 106 conidia/g) showed the highest levels of conidia production. The resulting conidia showed insecticidal activity higher than 80% on coconut termites. These new raw substrates may represent viable alternatives for the production of entomopathogenic fungi for use in the biological control of various insect pests.
Highlights
Resumo Beauveria bassiana é um fungo promissor no controle biológico de insetos-praga
Conidia are the application structures produced and marketed for the different entomopathogenic fungal species, and white rice and barley are standard media used for their production because they are rich in carbohydrates and has the ability to conserve moisture (Mascarin et al, 2010)
One of the main factors needed for the success of biological control using B. bassiana is production of a large quantity of conidia at a competitive price
Summary
Resumo Beauveria bassiana é um fungo promissor no controle biológico de insetos-praga. Estes novos substratos brutos podem representar uma alternativa viável para produção de fungos entomopatogênicos para uso no controle biológico de vários insetos praga. Of the microbial control agents used for economically important pests, fungi appear to be the most promising due to the abundance of fungal genera and species (Zimmermann, 1982; Burges, 2000). Beauveria bassiana is considered an important agent for biological pest control. This fungus is commonly found parasitizing insects and has specificity for more than 200 species of insect pests (Dorworth, 1997). One of the main factors needed for the success of biological control using B. bassiana is production of a large quantity of conidia at a competitive price. The production process must be inexpensive while producing viable and virulent conidia (Robl et al, 2009)
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