Metarhizium and Isaria as biological control agents against Meccus vector of Chagas disease

Metarhizium anisopliae and Isaria javanica represent an alternative as biological control agents for insect vectors in endemic areas with high prevalence and incidence of Chagas disease. The virulence of these fungi toward Meccus pallidipennis , insect vector of Trypanosoma cruzi , causative agent of Chagas disease was evaluated by their mortality and medium survival time (ST50) on five instar nymphs (N1, N2, N3, N4, N5) and adults of this vector. The virulence of both fungi was evaluated independently by ST50. Thirty µL of a conidial suspension (10 7 conidia/mL) from each fungus was applied on the insect pronotum, and mortality was reported every 24 h. Experiments were assayed three times for each insect stage and for each fungus. The mortality in all the nymphal stages (N1-N4) of M. pallidipennis with M. anisopliae was > 96% at day 9, except in N5 97% at day 12, and in the adult stage was 100% at day 10. In all nymph stages and adults, the mortality of M. anisopliae was higher than that of I. javanica. The ST50 of N5 and adults for I. javanica was 9.5 and 13 days, respectively, and in these same stages for M. anisopliae , ST50 was 8 and 9 days. M. anisopliae exhibited a higher virulence than I. javanica for the control of the triatomine M. pallidipennis . Both fungi can be a biological control alternative for regulating populations of M. pallidipennis in Chagas disease endemic areas.