Abstract
Abstract
Background
Entomopathogenic fungi, representing a class of microbial agent, have been widely used in the field of pest management. The objective of this work was to isolate different species of fungi and to evaluate their virulence against the destructive and invasive red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).
Results
Two new entomopathogenic fungal strains isolated from dead diseased RPWs were identified as Metarhizium anisopliae ZZ-A1 and Fusarium oxysporum ZZ-L1 using growth characteristics, morphology, and rDNA-ITS sequence amplification. Bioassays showed that M. anisopliae ZZ-A1 strain exhibited significantly higher corrected mortality than F. oxysporum ZZ-L1 strain (90.92 vs. 77.28%) in fourth instar RPW larvae 12 days after treatment with a concentration of 1.0 × 1010 conidia/ml, as well as low median lethal concentration (LC50) and median lethal time (LT50) values.
Conclusions
The results suggest that both fungal isolates can potentially be developed as effective and persistent a microbial agent against this widespread pest, RPW. However, M. anisopliae ZZ-A1 showed relatively higher insecticidal activity than F. oxysporum ZZ-L1.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China
President Foundation of Minnan Normal University
Fujian Provincial Financial Forestry Science and Technology Project
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Insect Science,Plant Science,Agronomy and Crop Science,Ecology
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