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New records of entomopathogenic fungi infecting Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum, pests of horticultural crops, in Argentina

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Abstract

The whiteflies Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) are major crop pests throughout the world. Although extensive research about biological control of whitefly by parasitoids and predators has been conducted, also entomopathogenic fungi can be considered as potential biological control agents. Surveys for entomopathogenic fungi were carried out in organic and conventional horticultural crops in greenhouses and open fields in Buenos Aires and Corrientes provinces, Argentina. These surveys resulted in the recovery and isolation of the following fungi from whiteflies: Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimmerm.) Zare & W. Gams, L. muscarium (Petch) Zare & W. Gams, L. longisporum (Petch) Zare & W. Gams, Isaria fumosorosea Wize and I. javanica (Frieder. & Bally) Samson & Hywel-Jones. Pathogenicity tests were conducted against T. vaporariorum nymphs using a conidial suspension (1 × 107 conidia/ml) of the fungi. A mortality rate between 26.6% and 76.6% was obtained at 7 days post-infection. These are the first records of natural infections in the southernmost region of the South American continent of L. lecanii, L. muscarium, L. longisporum and Isaria javanica (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) on T. vaporariorum and also the first report of I. fumosorosea on B. tabaci.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to and gratefully thank Ing. S. Cáceres for the contribution of infected insects from Corrientes province, Dra. C. Cédola for collaborating with the identification of the insects, and Joop van Lenteren for critical review of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CEPAVE (Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores) UNLP-CONICET, Calle 2 #584, La Plata, 1900, Argentina

    Ana Clara Scorsetti, Carolina De Gregorio & Claudia C. López Lastra

  2. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Tower Road, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Richard A. Humber

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  1. Ana Clara Scorsetti
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  2. Richard A. Humber
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  3. Carolina De Gregorio
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  4. Claudia C. López Lastra
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Correspondence to Ana Clara Scorsetti.

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Scorsetti, A.C., Humber, R.A., De Gregorio, C. et al. New records of entomopathogenic fungi infecting Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum, pests of horticultural crops, in Argentina. BioControl 53, 787–796 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9118-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9118-9

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