Susceptibility of Tetranychus urticae koch. (Acari: Tetranychidae) to isolates of entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana

Abstract

Bioassays with five isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Bals.- Criv.) Vuillemin were conducted under laboratory conditions with a goal to estimate their virulence to the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch. (Acari: Tetranychidae). Common bean plants with mites were treated by spraying conidial suspensions of isolates at concentrations of 106, 107 and 108 conidia/ml. Lethal effects of the fungal isolates were evaluated as percentages of cumulative daily mortality due to mycoses, corrected for mortality in the control variant. Virulence of the isolates was estimated based on values of the median lethal time (LT50) calculated by probit analysis for the variants treated with conidial suspensions at the concentration of 106 conidia/ml. The two-spotted spider mite was found susceptible to the examined isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus B. bassiana. Mycosis caused to T. urticae by the B. bassiana isolates 444 Bb and 445 Bb had fast lethal effect after treatment with conidial suspensions even at the concentration of 106 conidia/ ml. The mean mortality values of host individuals were 83.78 ? 3.62% and 68.49 ? 4.28% on the first day, respectively, and up to 100% in both variants on the fourth day. The isolates 426 Bb, 444 Bb and 445 Bb of B. bassiana were highly virulent to two-spotted spider mites with values of the median lethal time varied within overlapped narrow confidence intervals from 0.122 to 1.084 days (average value 0.162 days), from 0.117 to 1.398 days (average value 0.146 days) and from 0.106 to 1.162 days (average value 0.131 days), respectively. Significant differences regarding virulence of the three isolates at p-level < 0.05 could not been proved. The other two examined isolates were distinctly less virulent to T. urticae than these three B. bassiana isolates.