Can Entomopathogenic Fungi Clearly Differentiate between Harmful and Beneficial Insects in Nature?
2015
Ibrahim, R.A.
For two successive years, a survey was conducted of entomopathogenic fungi associated with two naturally infected predatory insect species on different plantations of the Nile Delta in northern Egypt. Adults of the eleven-spotted ladybird beetle, Coccinella undecimpunctata L. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), are frequently observed with infections of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana, which caused mortality of 4.1 % and 5.4 % in the adult ladybird beetle population sampled in July 2006 and 2007, respectively. However, mycosed individuals of the seven-spotted ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, were rarely encountered. Adults of the syrphid fly Syrphus corollae (Diptera: Syrphidae) are also subject to infection with the entomopathogenic fungus Entomophthora syrphi. Data showed that E. syrphi caused mortality in syrphid fly adults at rates of 4.6 % in April to 0.2 % in June 2006, whereas mortality rates ranged from 6.1 % in April to 0.9 % in June 2007. Mycosed syrphid adults were always found in an elevated pssition (frequently near the tips of artichoke leaves). Two years of field monitoring revealed that both entomopathogenic fungi, B. bassiana and E. syrphi, fail to distinguish between their original hosts and the predatory insects that coexist in the same ecosystem.
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