Trapping Entomopathogenic Fungi from Vine Terroir Soil Samples with Insect Baits for Controlling Serious Pests

Spiridon Mantzoukas,Aristeidis Ntoukas,Dimitrios G. Karpouzas,Panagiotis A. Eliopoulos,Ioannis Lagogiannis,Demetrios Kouretas,Konstantinos Poulas

doi:10.3390/app10103539

Spiridon Mantzoukas, Aristeidis Ntoukas + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app10103539

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: May 20, 2020
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Patras, University of Thessaly

Abstract

Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms with many forms and certain demands about the soil they colonize, which reveal the conditions that prevail therein. Although they can often kill pests without damaging plants or humans, they are not widely used as pesticides as they are not easy to handle and require much time before they act. Nevertheless, insects can be used as baits to trap these entomopathogenic fungi, giving information about their distribution within the terroir. The purpose of this study was to investigate the soil distribution of entomopathogenic fungi species in soil samples from two vine soil terroirs. Nine fungi were identified in total, but M. anisopliae and B. bassiana showed the greatest frequency, which was expressed by difference in adult bait mortality among species. These fungi had not been previously documented in vine terroirs.

Highlights

Entomopathogenic fungi are microorganisms that infect and often kill insects and other arthropods [1]
A total of nine isolates were morphologically identified from the two vine terroirs as Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) and Beauveria bassiana (Bals.-Criv.)
In the soil samples from the two vine terroirs, the Hyphomycetes B. bassiana and M. anisopliae were isolated from P. truncates, R. dominica, S. zeamais, C. ferrugineus, T. confusum, and S. oryzae

Summary

Introduction

Entomopathogenic fungi are microorganisms that infect and often kill insects and other arthropods [1]. Fungus-infected insects can be commonly found in nature, and epizootics are observed impacting pest populations, mortality from fungal infection rarely occurs naturally at sufficiently high levels or early enough in a pest cycle to prevent economic loss. Despite their many advantages over other biological and chemical products, entomopathogenic fungi remain relatively underutilized. 60% of insect diseases are caused by pathogenic fungi [3]. Contrary to other insect pathogenic microorganisms, entomopathogenic fungi directly infect their host through the exoskeleton

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