Horizontal transmission and effect of the temperature in pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana against Diatraea saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of temperature on the pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana against Diatraea saccharalis and evaluate the horizontal transmission capacity among the sugarcane borer larvae. The strains were most pathogenic at 26ºC, followed by 32ºC than at 20ºC, with respective mortalities of 100, 50 and 30.3%. The lethal time was also affected by the temperature, with the shortest LT 50 observed at 26ºC (2.2 days) and the longest at 20ºC (16.2 days). The URM2915 strain appeared most effective in all the experiments as having potential for deployment in biological control programs for the sugarcane borer. Results in horizontal transmission of B. bassiana showed that this procedure could also be adopted as control strategy for the sugarcane borer.

Keywords

• Sugarcane borer
• Lepidoptera
• entomopathogenic fungus
• biological control
• autodissemination