Abstract
The Western Corn Rootworm D. virgifera virgifera Le Conte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a serious pest of maize, has been recently introduced into Europe. Several approaches for its control are presently under investigation including microbial agents. In order to get information on the role of naturally occurring pathogens in the regulation of Diabrotica populations, we started an investigation in established populations in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Austria, and Italy in 2005 and 2006. In infested maize fields in Hungary, plants and their root systems were grubbed out and larvae and pupae were collected. Adult D. v. virgifera were collected in Hungary, Austria, Romania, Serbia and Italy. Additionally, the occurrence of entomopathogenic fungi in soils of maize fields was determined using Galleria mellonella and Tenebrio molitor larvae as bait insects. The density of entomopathogenic fungi was obtained by plating soil suspension on selective medium. Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria spp. infections were found in 1.4% of field collected larvae, 0.2% of field collected pupae and 0.05% of field collected adults. Whereas natural infections of D. v. virgifera were rarely found, a high density of insect pathogenic fungi was recorded in Hungarian soils. M. anisopliae could be detected in every maize field either using the “bait method” or a “selective medium” method. This is the first report of a natural occurrence of entomoparasitic nematodes (Heterorhabditis sp., Steinernema sp.) in Diabrotica v. virgifera in Europe.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Dr. Peter Cate, Ing. Helmut Klapal and Otto Wurm from AGES and we are grateful to Dr. Stefan Toepfer and the team of the Plant Protection Service Hodmezovasarhely for the support in Hungary as well as for the identification of nematodes in larvae. Many thanks to Dr. Dave Moore and Dr. Stefan T. Jaronski for correcting the English spelling. The work conducted by Christina Pilz was funded by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI).
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Pilz, C., Wegensteiner, R. & Keller, S. Natural occurrence of insect pathogenic fungi and insect parasitic nematodes in Diabrotica virgifera virgifera populations. BioControl 53, 353–359 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9074-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9074-4