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Potential Impact of Chemical Fungicides on the Efficacy of Metarhizium rileyi and the Occurrence of Pandora gammae on Caterpillars in Soybean Crops

  • Invertebrate Microbiology
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Abstract

Entomopathogenic fungi may play a crucial role in the regulation of caterpillar populations in soybean crops, either through natural occurrences or applied as mycopesticides. In the present work, we reported the naturally occurring entomopathogenic fungus Pandora gammae attacking the caterpillar Chrysodeixis includens, with infection rates in field trials ran in two consecutive years in the 10–35% range. As many chemicals are potentially harmful to entomopathogenic fungi, this work aimed to investigate the potential impact of two chemical fungicides (azoxystrobin + benzovindiflupyr and trifloxistrobina + prothioconazole) used to control soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) on the natural occurrence of P. gammae and Metarhizium rileyi, as well as the efficacy of the latter fungus applied as different formulations against the soybean caterpillars Anticarsia gemmatalis and C. includens. Under laboratory conditions, fungicides used at field-recommended rates had a considerable negative impact on the germinability of M. riley on the medium surface, and all tested formulations did not protect conidia from damage by these chemicals. This harmful effect also impacted host infectivity, as the larval mortality owing to this fungus was reduced by 30–40% compared to that of the fungicide-free treatments. In field trials conducted in two subsequent years, unformulated and formulated M. rileyi conidia applied to soybean plants produced primary infection sites in caterpillar populations after a single spray. Spraying unformulated or formulated M. rileyi conidia following fungicide application on plants did not affect host infection rates over time. Moreover, the use of M. rileyi-based formulations or chemical fungicide did not interfere with the natural infection rates by P. gammae on its host, C. includens. Although a higher degree of exposure to non-selective fungicides can negatively affect fungal entomopathogens, a single foliar application of fungicides may be harmless to both M. rileyi and P. gammae in soybean fields. Additionally, this work showed that naturally occurring wasps and tachnids also play an important role in the regulation of A. gemmatalis and, notably, C. includens, with parasitism rates above 40–50% in some cases.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa, Brazil) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for Lopes RB fellowship (PQ 309070/2020–1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, PqEB W5 North Avenue Federal District, Brasilia, 70770-917, Brazil

    Rogerio Biaggioni Lopes, Marcos Faria & Daniela Aguiar Souza

  2. Embrapa Soybean, Carlos João Strass Road, Londrina, Paraná, 86001-970, Brazil

    Daniel Ricardo Sosa-Gómez

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  1. Rogerio Biaggioni Lopes
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  2. Marcos Faria
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by RBL, DAS, MF, and DRSG. The first draft of the manuscript was written by RBL, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rogerio Biaggioni Lopes.

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Lopes, R.B., Faria, M., Souza, D.A. et al. Potential Impact of Chemical Fungicides on the Efficacy of Metarhizium rileyi and the Occurrence of Pandora gammae on Caterpillars in Soybean Crops. Microb Ecol 86, 647–657 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-02102-9

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