Entomopathogenic fungi in soils from Alicante province [Spain]

We have used Galleria mellonella (Linnaeus, 1758) larvae as a bait for detecting insect pathogens in soils from Alicante(SE Spain). Soil from 61 sites was collected including agricultural fields, forests and a mediterranean shrub(Nerium oleander L.) growing under natural or garden environments. The most frequently insect pathogens found werefungi (32.8% soils), being Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill (21% soils) the species most abundant. Metarhiziumanisopliae (Metschn.) Sorok (6.4%) and Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimm.) Gams [= Verticillium lecanii Zimm.] (4.8%)were less frequent. B. bassiana also scored the highest infection percentage in a single soil sample (ca. 90% of insectsinfected), and was also the most frequent (77.8%) entomopathogenic fungus detected in soils under N. oleander.

[1]  L. V. Lopez-Llorca,et al.  Fungal egg-parasites of plant-parasitic nematodes from Spanish soils. , 2002, Revista iberoamericana de micologia.

[2]  J. Cross,et al.  Biocontrol of Pests of Apples and Pears in Northern and Central Europe: 1. Microbial Agents and Nematodes , 1999 .

[3]  M. Bidochka,et al.  Occurrence of the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana in soils from temperate and near-northern habitats , 1998 .

[4]  L. Lacey.  Manual of techniques in insect pathology , 1997 .

[5]  I. Vänninen.  Distribution and occurrence of four entomopathogenic fungi in Finland: effect of geographical location, habitat type and soil type , 1996 .

[6]  K. Domsch,et al.  Compendium of Soil Fungi , 1995 .

[7]  R. Cherry,et al.  Research Reports: Effect of Soil Parameters on Pathogenicity of the Fungus Metarhizium Anisopliae to the Sugarcane Grub Ligyrus Subtropicus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) , 1992 .

[8]  W. Gams.  The analysis of communities of saprophytic microfungi with special reference to soil fungi , 1992 .

[9]  B. Kerry.  An Assessment of Progress toward Microbial Control of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes. , 1990, Journal of nematology.

[10]  B. Kendrick,et al.  The Fifth Kingdom , 1987 .

[11]  G. Zimmermann.  The ‘Galleria bait method’ for detection of entomopathogenic fungi in soil , 1986 .

[12]  A. J. Lingg,et al.  Biotic and abiotic factors affecting stability of Beauveria bassiana conidia in soil , 1981 .

[13]  J. Stalpers,et al.  CBS course of mycology. , 1975 .