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Title: FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH THE COFFEE BERRY BORER, HYPOTHENEMUS HAMPEI

Author
item Vega, Fernando
item MERCADIER, GUY - EBCL
item Jackson, Mark

Submitted to: European Meeting in the IOBC/WPRS
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae; CBB), is a serious pest of coffee throughout the world. For the past two years, the European Biological Control Laboratory (EBCL) has been conducting foreign explorations for natural enemies of the CBB, mainly in Africa. So far, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Uganda have been visited with additional journeys planned to Cameroon, India, South Africa and Saudia Arabia. In the field, coffee berries showing the characteristic hole bored by the female were individually collected and placed in plastic jars. To date, the following fungi have been isolated from CBB's collected in either Benin or Uganda; Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceus, Fusarium sp., Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium brevicompactum and Verticillium sp. Overall, the fungal entomopathogens Paecilomyces farinosus, Paecilomyces lilacinus, and Beauveria bassiana have also been isolated. The CBB- isolated P. farinosus and B. bassiana were used in experiments testing six different C:N ratios for liquid medium production. The CBB-P. farinosus strain outperformed all other fungal entomopathogens, including some commercially avialable strains. Experiments are currently underway to test dessication tolerance of the CBB - P. farinosus strain.