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Title: An overview of arthropod-associated fungi from Argentina and Brazil

Author
item SOSA GOMEZ, DR - Embrapo Soybean
item LOPEZ LASTRA, CC - National University Of Laplata
item Humber, Richard

Submitted to: Mycopathologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/2010
Publication Date: 2/22/2010
Citation: Sosa Gomez, D., Lopez Lastra, C., Humber, R.A. 2010. An overview of arthropod-associated fungi from Argentina and Brazil. Mycopathologia. 170:61-76.

Interpretive Summary: This paper provides a compiled listing of fungi that are pathogenic for or associated with insects, mites and spiders in Argentina and Brazil. This listing includes 123 fungal species from a wide range of fungal groups, and serves to provide a documentation of published information and personal observations by the authors about the places where these fungi are known to occur and with which hosts they are associated. The document compiles a great deal of information from very diverse sources (there are 112 references to the literature) and is also specifically intended to encourage further exploration in these and other South American nations of the diversity of fungal entomopathogens in these two largest countries of South America. This paper provides a useful teaching and reference tool for this scientific community and should advance further studies to collect and to characterize the diversity of these fungi in that region as well as to assist decisions about when new fungal species might need to be described from this region.

Technical Abstract: Arthropod pests in forest and agricultural systems are afflicted by a plethora of pathogenic organisms. Among them, entomopathogenic fungi are the most common control agents that regulate their populations. This review compiles the information available from Argentina and Brazil about the entomopathogenic fungi occurring in agricultural and natural environments. The scientific names of the fungi are listed according to the latest phylogenetically based classification of fungi. We present an updated list of arthropod-pathogenic fungi occurring in Argentina (from 15 provinces) and Brazil (from 20 states) based on published literature and our personal observations. The list includes a total of 123 species and three varieties of fungi from 53 genera of Blastocladiomycetes (2 genera), Entomophthorales (8 genera), Harpellales (13 genera), and a diverse assortment of ascomycetes (primarily from Hypocreales) in 17 anamophic and 4 teleomorphic genera. In both countries, molecular studies on arthropod-pathogenic fungi are still in their early stages. Most of these recent molecular studies have focused on intraspecific variability. This listing is intended to encourage much more active collection and characterization by traditional and molecular approaches of the obviously rich but underexplored flora of fungi affecting invertebrates from this large region of South America.