ABSTRACT
With the advance of deforestation, the practice of unplanned farming and the use of toxic pesticides in the environment, it is estimated that the major part of the diversity of entomopathogenic fungi present in the environmental has been disturbed. Preservation in the form of a culture collection is a fundamentally important practice for the maintenance of the diversity of these microorganisms. The present study was aimed at the systematical collection of sample soil and dead and moribund insects that present the extrusion of such pathogens or with characteristics of such diseases in crops or environmental preservation areas. The insects were collected and identified in the laboratory, where the pathogen was isolated in PDA culture medium. The Petri dishes were maintained in a B.O.D. chamber at 25 ± 1° C, 70 ± 10% RH and 12 hours of photophase, for 7 days. After obtaining pure cultures, the conidia were harvested with a metallic loop, stored in plastic Eppendorf tubes, and maintained in a freezer at -4º C. Up to the present, the following entomopathogenic fungi have been isolated: Beauveria bassianaparasitizing Lagria villosa (UFGD 01), Hypothenemus hampei(UFGD 06 and UFGD 11), an insect of the Crisomellidae family (UFGD 02), and from soil (UFGD 16); the fungi Metarhizium anisopliae parasitizing Zulia entreriana (UFGD 05), Mahanarva fimbriolata (UFGD 03), M. posticata (UFGD 07) and from soil (UFGD 12); Paecilomyces fumosoroseus attacking an insect of the Scarabaeidae family (UFGD 04), L. villosa (UFGD 13), and from soil (UFGD 09 and UDGF 15); P. farinosus isolated from soil (UFGD 08), and the fungi Nomuraea rileyi parasitizing the caterpillar Anticarsia gemmatalis (UFGD 14).
KEY WORDS
Culture collections; entomopathogenic fungi; microbial control