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Entomopathogenic nematodes from Egypt

The occurrence and distribution of entomopathogenic nematodes including Heterorhabditis indica, Steinernema abbasi and Steinernema carpocapsae have been reported from four geographical regions (Northern, Middle, Southern and Sinai Peninsula) of Egypt.

These findings were presented by Abu-Shady, N.M., Shamseldean, M.M., Abd-Elbary, N.A. and Stock, S.P. at the 50th annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists held in Corvallis, Oregon from July 17-20, 2011.

Entomopathogenic nematodes and Colorado potato beetle

• Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) are a most damaging pest of potatoes but they can also cause a significant damage to tomatoes and eggplants.
• Generally, both adults and larvae feed voraciously on leaves causing hundreds of millions dollars in yield loss each year in the United States.
• Many chemical insecticides have been recommended to control these beetles but unfortunately beetles have an ability to develop resistance to insecticides.
• Entomopathogenic nematodes as biological control agents could provide an alternative to chemical pesticides in management of Colorado potato beetles.
• As entomopathogenic nematodes naturally found soil, they are very effective against soil dwelling stages of host insect pests.  For example, mature larvae of Colorado potato beetle that moves in the soil for pupation can be a very good target for entomopathogenic nematodes.
• Commercially available entomopathogenic nematode species including Steinernema carpocapsae, Steinernema feltiae, Heterorhabditis megidis, Heterorhabditis marelata and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora have showed a very high efficacy against adult, larval and prepupal stages of Colorado potato beetles when tested in soil under laboratory conditions.

Publications:

1. Ebrahimi, L., Niknam, G. and Lewis, E. E. 2011.   Lethal and sublethal effects of Iranian isolates of Steinernema feltiae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora on the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata.  Biocontrol 56: 781-788.
2. Ebrahimi, L.,Niknam, G.and Dunphy, G.B. 2011. Hemocyte responses of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, and the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, to the entomopathogenic nematodes, Steinernema feltiae andHeterorhabditis bacteriophora . Journal of Insect Science 11, Article Number: 75.
3. Armer, C.A., Berry, R.E., Reed, G.L. and Jepsen, S.J. 2004.  Colorado potato beetle control by application of the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis marelata and potato plant alkaloid manipulation. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 111: 47-58.
4. Berry, R.E., Liu, J. and Reed, G. 1997.  Comparison of endemic and exotic entomopathogenic nematode species for control of Colorado potato beetle (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae). Journal of Economic Entomology. 90: 1528-1533.
5. Cantelo, W.W. and Nickle, W.R. 1992. Susceptibility of prepupae of the Colorado potato beetle (coleoptera, chrysomelidae) to entomopathogenic nematodes (Rhabditida, Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae). Journal of Entomological Science. 27: 37-43.
6. Nickle, W.R., Connick, W.J. and Cantelo, W.W. 1994. Effects of pesta-pelletized Steinernema-carpocapsae (all) on western corn rootworms and colorado potato beetles. Journal of Nematology. 26: 249-250.
7. Trdan, S., Vidrih, M., Andjus, L. and Laznik, Z. 2009. Activity of four entomopathogenic nematode species against different developmental stages of Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae. Helminthologia. 46: 14-20.

Entomopathogenic nematodes and qPCR

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) technique can be used for the identification of entomopathogenic nematodes in the both Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematodae families directly from soil samples.

Species specific primers and TaqMan (R) probes from the ITS rDNA region for the EPNs were used for the identification of four species of entomopathogenic nematodes including Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, Steinernema carpocapsae, Steinernema feltiae and Steinernema scapterisci (Campos-Herrera et al., 2011).

A publication on indentification of entomopathogenic nematodes using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) technique.

Campos-Herrera, R., El-Borai, F.E., Stuart, R.J., Graham, J.H. and Duncan, L.W. 2011.   Entomopathogenic nematodes, phoretic Paenibacillus spp., and the use of real time quantitative PCR to explore soil food webs in Florida citrus groves. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 108: 30-39.

It has been demonstrated that the curative applications of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae in a chitosan formulation can reduce the population of red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus infesting Cretan Date Palm, Phoenix theophrasti (Dembilio et al., 2011).

Read following papers for more information.

Dembilio, O., Karamaouna, F., Kontodimas, D. C., Nomikou, M. and Jacas, J. A. 2011.  Short communication. Susceptibility of Phoenix theophrasti (Palmae: Coryphoideae) to Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and its control using Steinernema carpocapsae in a chitosan formulation. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research 9: 623-626.

Dembilio, O., Llacer, E., de Altube, M.D.M. and Jacas, J.A. 2010.  Field efficacy of imidacloprid and Steinernema carpocapsae in a chitosan formulation against the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Phoenix. Pest Management Science 66: 365-370.

Heterorhabditis indica and Steinernema carpocapsae for controlling alfalfa weevil

Application of Heterorhabditis indica and S. carpocapase at the rate 1 billion nematodes per hectare can reduce 72 and 50% population of alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica grubs, respectively.  Another entomopathogenic nematode, Steinemema thermophillum was also effective in killing H. postica grubs (Shah et al., 2011).

Read following paper for information on the effect of entomopathogenic nematodes on alfalfa weevil

Shah, N.K., Azmi, M.I. and Tyagi, P.K. 2011. Pathogenicity of Rhabditid nematodes (Nematoda: Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematidae) to the grubs of alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Range Management and Agroforestry 32: 64-67.

Recently, Deol et al. (2011) demonstrated that entomopathogenic nematodes, Steinernema carpocapsae, can be delivered via infected Galleria mellonella or Tenebrio molitor cadavers in the Scotts commercial growing medium, Miracle-Gro ^(R).

Read following papers for more information on delivery of entomopathogenic nematodes using nematode infected cadavers

Ansari, M.A., Hussain, M. and Moens, M. 2009.  Formulation and application of entomopathogenic nematode-infected cadavers for control of Hoplia philanthus in turf grass. Pest Management Science. 65: 367-374.

Bruck, D.J., Shapiro-Ilan, D.I. and Lewis, E.E. 2005.   Evaluation of application technologies of entomopathogenic nematodes for control of the black vine weevil.  Journal of Economic Entomology 98: 1884-1889.

Deol, Y.S., Jagdale, G.B., Canas, L. and Grewal, P.S. 2011. Delivery of entomopathogenic nematodes directly through commercial growing media via the inclusion of infected host cadavers: A novel. Biological Control 58: 60-67.

Shapiro-Ilan, D.I., Morales-Ramos, J.A., Rojas, M.G. and Tedders, W.L. 2010.  Effects of a novel entomopathogenic nematode-infected host formulation on cadaver integrity, nematode yield, and suppression of Diaprepes abbreviatus and Aethina tumida. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 103: 103-108.

Spence, K.O., Stevens, G.N., Arimoto, H., Ruiz-Vega, J.,   Kaya, H.K. and Lewis, E.E. 2011.   Effect of insect cadaver desiccation and soil water potential during rehydration on entomopathogenic nematode (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae) production and virulence. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 106: 268-273.

Spence, K.O., Stevens, G.N., Arimoto, H., Ruiz-Vega, J., Kaya, H.K. and Lewis, E.E. 2011.  Effect of insect cadaver desiccation and soil water potential during rehydration on entomopathogenic nematode (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae) production and virulence. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 106: 268-273.

The mass production of the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae can be improved by promoting the mating process among the first generation adult nematodes (Chavarria-Hernandez et al., 2011).

Read following papers for detail information on the entomopathogenic nematode mass production techniques.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N. and de la Torre, M. 2001.  Population growth kinetics of the nematode, Steinernema feltiae, in submerged monoxenic culture. Biotechnology Letters 23: 311-315.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Espino-Garcia, J.J., Sanjuan-Galindo, R. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I. 2006.  Monoxenic liquid culture of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae using a culture medium containing whey kinetics and modeling. Journal of Biotechnology 125: 75-84.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Islas-Lopez, M.A., Maciel-Vergara, G., Gayosso-Canales, M. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I. 2008.  Kinetics of infective juvenile production of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae in submerged monoxenic culture.  Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering 31: 419-426.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Islas-Lopez, M.A., Maciel-Vergara, G., Pastrana, B.R.R. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I.  2008.  Effects of culture media on the kinetics of infective juvenile production of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, in submerged monoxenic culture.  Revista Mexicana de Ingenieria Quimica 713-720.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Maciel-Vergara, G., Chavarria-Hernandez, J.C., Castro-Rosas, J.,Rodriguez-Pastrana, B.R., de la Torre-Martinez, M. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I. 2011.  Mass production of the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae CABA01, through the submerged monoxenic culture in two internal-loop airlift bioreactors with some geometric differences. Biochemical Engineering Journal  55: 145-153.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Ortega-Morales, E., Vargas-Torres, A., Chavarria-Hernandez, J.C. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I. 2010.  Submerged Monoxenic Culture of the Entomopathogenic Nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae CABA01, in a Mechanically Agitated Bioreactor: Evolution of the Hydrodynamic and Mass Transfer Conditions. Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering 15: 580-589.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I., Perez-Guevara, F. and  de la Torre, M.  2003. Evolution of culture broth rheological properties during propagation of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, in submerged monoxenic culture. Biotechnology Progress 19: 405-409.

Chavarria-Hernandez, N., Sanjuan-Galindo, R., Rodriguez-Pastrana, B.R., Medina-Torres, L. and Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.I.  2007.  Submerged monoxenic culture of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae in an internal-loop airlift bioreactor using two configurations of the inner tube. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 98: 167-176.

de la Torre, M. 2003. Challenges for mass production of nematodes in submerged culture. Biotechnology Advances 21: 407-416.

Ehlers, R.U. 2001.  Mass production of entomopathogenic nematodes for plant protection. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 56: 623-633.

Gil, G.H., Choo, H.Y. and Gaugler, R. 2002.  Enhancement of entomopathogenic nematode production in in-vitro liquid culture of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora by fed-batch culture with glucose supplementation.  Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 58: 751-755.

Han, R.C. and Ehlers, R.U. 2001. Effect of Photorhabdus luminescens phase variants on the in vivo and in vitro development and reproduction of the entomopathogenic nematodes Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema carpocapsae. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 35: 239-247.

Hirao, A. and Ehlers, R. -U. 2009.  Effect of temperature on the development of Steinernema carpocapsae and Steinernema feltiae (Nematoda: Rhabditida) in liquid culture. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 84: 1061-1067.

Hirao, A. and Ehlers, R. -U. 2009.  Influence of cell density and phase variants of bacterial symbionts (Xenorhabdus spp.) on dauer juvenile recovery and development of biocontrol nematodes Steinernema carpocapsae and S. feltiae (Nematoda: Rhabditida). Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 84: 77-85.

Hirao, A. and Ehlers, R. -U. 2010.  Influence of inoculum density on population dynamics and dauer juvenile yields in liquid culture of biocontrol nematodes Steinernema carpocapsae and S. feltiae (Nematoda: Rhabditida).  Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 85: 507-515.

Islas-Lopez, M.A., Sanjuan-Galindo, R., Rodriguez-Hernandez, A.L. and Chavarria-Hernandez, N.  2005. Monoxenic production of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae using culture media containing agave juice (aguamiel) from Mexican maguey-pulquero (Agave spp). Effects of the contents of nitrogen, carbohydrates and fat on infective juvenile production. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 68: 91-97.

Johnigk, S.A., Ecke, F., Poehling, M. and Ehlers, R.U. 2004.  Liquid culture mass production of biocontrol nematodes, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Nematoda : Rhabditida): improved timing of dauer juvenile inoculation. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 64: 651-658.

Shapiro-Ilan, D.I. and Gaugler, R. 2002.  Production technology for entomopathogenic nematodes and their bacterial symbionts.  Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 28: 137-146.

Yoo, S.K., Brown, I., Cohen, N., et al. 2001. Medium concentration influencing growth of the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and its symbiotic bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens. Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 11: 644-648.

It has been demonstrated that five different types of commercial potting media including peat, bark, coir, and peat blended with 10% and 20% compost green waste can influence the virulence of entomopathogenic nematodes against third-instar black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus.  For example, Heterorhabditis species including Heterorhabditis bacteriophora UWS1 strain, H. megidis, H. downesi can cause 100% mortality of black vine weevil grubs in all the five types of media but  Steinernema species including Steinernema feltiae, S. carpocapsae, and S. kraussei can cause 100% black vine weevil grub mortality only in the peat blended with 20% compost green waste.  These results suggest that when growers are selecting entomopathogenic nematodes to control black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus in their nurseries/greenhouses, they should take into consideration the type of potting media used in growing their plants.

Please read following paper for the information on the method of nematode application rates and timings.

Ansari, M. A. and Butt, T. M. 2011.  Effect of potting media on the efficacy and dispersal of entomopathogenic nematodes for the control of black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Biological Control 58: 310-318.

Ansari, M.A., Shah, F.A. and Butt, T.M. 2010.  The entomopathogenic nematodeSteinernema kraussei and Metarhizium anisopliae work synergistically in controlling overwintering larvae of the black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus, in strawberry growbags. Biocontrol Science and Technology. 20: 99-105.

The lesser peachtree borer, Synanthedon pictipes is a serious pest of commercially grown peach (Prunus spp.), orchards.  It has been demonstrated that this insect pest can be controlled using entomopathogenic nematodes including Steinernema carpocapsae, S. riobrave and  Heterorhabditis spp.

Please read following article for interaction between the lesser peachtree borer and entomopathogenic nematodes.

Cottrell, T. E., Shapiro-Ilan, D. I., Horton, D. L., and Mizell, R. F., III.  2011. Laboratory virulence and orchard efficacy of entomopathogenic nematodes against the lesser peach tree borer (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae).  Journal of Economic entomology 104: 47-53.

It has been demonstrated that the Entomopathogenic nematodes including Steinernema carpocapsae and Steinernema feltiae have a potential to use as effective biological control agent against diapausing cocooned codling moth, Cydia pomonella larvae in miniature fruit bins.

Read following paper for more information on efficacy of entomopathogenic nematodes against codling moth

Lacey, L.A., Neven, L.G., Headrick, H.L., Fritts, R. 2005.  Factors affecting entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinerneniatidae) for control of overwintering codling moth (Lepidoptera : Tortricidae) in fruit bins. Journal of Economic Entomology 98: 1863-1869.