Identification and evaluation of endemic Metarhizium strains for biological control of banana rust thrips

The infection efficacy ofMetarhiziumstrains (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) against the Queensland fruit flyBactrocera tryoni(Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…The Metarhizium pathogenicity (predominately Metarhizium anisopliae ) against various fruit fly species have been reported in other studies, including Bactrocera zonata ( Ibrahim et al 2014 , Gul et al 2015 , Hussein et al 2018 , Ahmad et al 2022 , El-Gendy et al 2022 ), Bactrocera cucurbitae ( Sookar et al 2014 , Hamzah et al 2021 , Iqbal et al 2021 ), Bactrocera dorsalis ( Faye et al 2021 , Melesse and Ferdu 2021 , Wang et al 2021 , Wangkeeree and Suwanchaisri 2022 ), and Ceratitis capitata ( Castillo et al 2000 , Ekesi et al 2002 , Quesada-Moraga et al 2006 , Beris et al 2013 , Soliman et al 2020 ), with limited research focus on Qfly fungal entomopathogens ( Carswell et al 1998 ). The strains used in the current study originated from local banana farm soils, and local adaption by these strains may facilitate prolonged control due to climate suitability ( McGuire and Northfield 2021 ). Thus, the apparent dominance of Metarhizium species within tropical soils ( McGuire and Northfield 2020 , 2021 ) warrant their consideration for the biological control of geographically similar pest species.…”

“…The strains used in the current study originated from local banana farm soils, and local adaption by these strains may facilitate prolonged control due to climate suitability ( McGuire and Northfield 2021 ). Thus, the apparent dominance of Metarhizium species within tropical soils ( McGuire and Northfield 2020 , 2021 ) warrant their consideration for the biological control of geographically similar pest species.…”

“…Newly emerged flies were separated into their treatment replicates in groups of 20, contained in ventilated plastic containers (120 × 300 × 225 mm) and maintained at room temperature for 10 days prior to commencing the experiment and for its duration. Three Metarhizium strains were reared from soil samples from Ecoganic banana farms at South Johnstone ( McGuire and Northfield 2021 ), Queensland, and maintained in petri-dishes (90 × 90 mm) on malt extract agar (MEA) at room temperature. The 3 Metarhizium strains evaluated were M. guizhouense (ARSEF:4303) (Mg1), M. guizhouense (ARSEF:7502) (Mg2), and M. lepidiotae (ARSEF:7412) (Ml3) in 2 different experiments.…”

“…To our knowledge, Carswell et al (1998) is the only prior study that has evaluated fungal entomopathogens against Qfly. A previous tropical Australian soil survey suggests commercial farms can support high Metarhizium prevalence ( McGuire and Northfield, 2021 ), and the soil-dwelling Qfly pupal stage makes it a promising target species for these fungal pathogens. Three Metarhizium strains comprising 2 species, Metarhizium guizhouense and Metarhizium lepidiotae, were selected from soil on or surrounding agricultural farms in Far North Queensland, Australia within Qfly’s native range.…”

Molecular Characterization and Assessment of Abundance of Thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan, 1913) on Three Plantations of Cavendish Banana in Davao del Norte, Philippines

“…In the Philippines, there are 13 species of thrips that are associated with banana -namely, Arorathrips mexicanus (Crawford), Bamboosiella cingulata (Hood), Chaetanaphothrips signipennis (Bagnall), Dendrothripoides innoxius (Karny), Elixothrips brevisetis (Bagnall), Helionothrips kodaliphilus (Ramakrishna & Margabandhu), Mecynothrips simplex Bagnall, Meiothrips menoni Ananthakrishnan, Selenothrips rubrocinctus (Giard), Thrips alius Palmer, Thrips javanicus Priesner, Thrips florum Schmutz, and Thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan) (Reyes 2021). Of these, Chaetanaphothrips signipennis (Bagnall) -commonly known as the banana rust thrips -is considered as a major pest of banana in Australia (McGuire and Northfield 2021), Ecuador, and Peru (Clercx et al 2015), whereas the flower thrips [Thrips hawaiiensis (Morgan)] is known as pest of Cavendish and "Saba" bananas (Celiz and Ubaub 2018;Reyes et al 2021b), "Carabao" mango (Reyes et al 2020), and "Magallanes" pummelo (Bagaoisan et al 2019Granada et al 2021) in the Philippines. In China, T. hawaiiensis is also known as a pest of banana and mango during the flowering stage of the plants (Cao et al 2020).…”