Biological Control of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) with fungi from Brazilian Amazon

Nárcya Trindade de Souza; Bruno Leite Beltrão Frederico; Gleison Rafael Queiroz Mendonça; Atilon Vasconcelos de Araujo; Adalberto Hipólito Sousa; Clarice Maia Carvalho

doi:10.12741/ebrasilis.v17.e1091

Authors

Nárcya Trindade de Souza Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2381-0415
Bruno Leite Beltrão Frederico Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3020-7803
Gleison Rafael Queiroz Mendonça Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1840-1569
Atilon Vasconcelos de Araujo Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2345-5078
Adalberto Hipólito Sousa Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3089-2762
Clarice Maia Carvalho Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1092-738X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v17.e1091

Keywords:

Amazonia, Beauveria, entomopathogenic, Paecilomyces, red beetle

Abstract

Stored grains are attacked by insect pests, causing various types of damage and potentially generating economic losses for producers. Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), popularly known as the red flour beetle, is one of these secondary pests. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of entomopathogenic fungi from the Brazilian Amazon for the control of T. castaneum. To evaluate the control of T. castaneum, different conidial suspensions (10⁵, 10⁶, 10⁷ and 10⁸ conidia/mL) of Beauveria sp. (4.438) and Paecilomyces sp. (4.658) were used, placing 1 mL of each concentration in the center of Petri dish and keeping the insects for 10 min. After that, they were transferred to another Petri dish, incubated for 7 days at room temperature, and Tween 0.01% and NaCl 0.9% solutions were used as negative controls. T. castaneum mortality was obtained only at the highest dilution, 10⁸ conidia/mL, being 22% for the fungus Beauveria sp. (4.438) and 5% for Paecilomyces sp. (4.658). Susceptibility to exposure to abiotic factors was measured with suspensions of Beauveria sp. (4.438) conidia at a concentration of 10⁶ conidia/mL exposed to ultraviolet light for 0, 30, 60 and 120 seconds, and at temperatures of 20, 26 and 32 ºC for 30, 60 and 90 min. The highest germination rate was at 20 °C for 90 minutes, with 92%. The entomopathogenic fungi from the Amazon showed low potential for controlling T. castaneum, however, they may present a higher mortality rate for other insect pests.

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