Pathogenicity of isolates of Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex to Nasutitermes corniger (Blattodea: Termitidae) and Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated the pathogenicity of 27 isolates of Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti Species Complex (FIESC) against N. corniger and S. frugiperda: four Fusarium sulawesiense (= FIESC 16), six Fusarium pernambucanum (= FIESC 17) and seventeen Fusarium caatingaense (= FIESC 20). Suspensions of 1 × 10⁷ conidia/mL⁻¹ were used for the pathogenicity tests. Cumulative mortality data on the fifth day were used for analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the means were compared by the Scott–Knott test (p ≤ .05). The variables (isolate and time) were submitted to regression analysis. The results revealed the absence of pathogenicity for isolates against S. frugiperda. On the other hand, all isolates tested were pathogenic to N. corniger with cumulative mortality confirmed at 38.22 − 96.00%. The isolates that caused the highest mortality values of N. corniger on the fifth day of evaluation also killed the insects faster. The highest confirmed cumulative mortality values were observed for URM 7560 from F. sulawesiense (88.89%), URM 7556 from F. pernambucanum (96.00%) and URM 6783 from F. caatingaense (84.89%). The effectiveness of these isolates will be compared in future field tests.

Keywords:

• Pest insects
• biological control
• entomopathogenic fungi
• Fusarium sulawesiense
• Fusarium caatingaense
• Fusarium pernambucanum

Acknowledgements

We thank Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior for the scholarship (CAPES) for Athaline G. Diniz.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).