Potential of <i>Beauveria</i> and <i>Metarhizium</i> as control agents of pinhole borers (<i>Platypus</i> spp)

Abstract

Three species of pinhole borer (Platypus spp) are known in New Zealand They are pests of beech and some other trees boring deep into living and dead trees which allows the ingress of sapstain and other fungi Although the species are native to New Zealand they can still cause localised problems to trees when populations reach epidemic levels We investigated the virulence of a selection of New Zealand isolates of three entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana B brongniartii and M anisopliae against Platypus The fungi were mainly from soil in beech forests All isolates tested could kill and sporulate on Platypus The ability of adult Platypus to contaminate larvae by transfer of spores was tested and found to occur in the laboratory The possibilities of using Beauveria for localised Platypus control are discussed