Study on spore survival of Beauveria bassiana Vuillemin in the mass of different date cultivars

Subject Areas : entomology and othea arthropods

M. Latifian ¹ , E. Soleyman-Nejadian ² , M. Ghazavi ³ , J. Hayati ⁴ , M. S. Mossadegh ⁵ , S. Ahmadi Zadeh ⁶

1 - Date Palm and Tropical Fruits Research Institute, Ahwaz, Iran
2 - Plant Protection Department, Agricultural Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
3 - Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Tehran, Iran
4 - Plant Protection Department, Agricultural Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
5 - Plant Protection Department, Agricultural Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
6 - Date Palm and Tropical Fruits Research Institute, Ahwaz, Iran

Received: 2009-11-09 Accepted : 2010-01-09 Published : 2010-05-22

Keywords:

Abstract :

Survival of the fungus Beauveria bassiana Vuillemin as a pathogen of saw-toothed beetle on the date cultivars including Sayer, Zahedi, and Deiri was investigated. Parameters including hazard rates of germination and median of survival hopes for fungal germination were estimated for each cultivar. The results showed that germination percentages decreased from the beginning to the end of storage period with different slopes in three Date cultivars. The trend of decreasing in germination of cultivars Zahedi and Sayer was more similar than Deiri. The median of spore life expectancy of Zahedi and Sayer had a slight variation until the fourth month of storage and then decreased gradually. However, in Deiri the spore life expectancy had a uniform variation until the sixth month of storage. There was a significant correlation between the acidity and water content of fruit and persistence of spore germination of B. bassiana during 6 months of storage.The effectiveness of acidity and water content of Deiri duration of spore germination in Deiri was stronger than Zahedi and Sayer. Therefore, the percentage of germination decreased steeper than the other two cultivars. These results indicated that the type of cultivar affects the survival of the pathogen, It is concluded that in using B. bassiana to control the sow-toothed beetle on date, the cultivar and storage conditions should be taken in to consideration.