38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology

Reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy in Europe encourage farming practices which protect the environment and maintain biodiversity in agroecosystems. This includes the planting of flower and seed rich field margins supporting insects and birds. With small adjustments these margins could also maintain populations of beneficial organisms such as entomopathogenic fungi, thereby contributing to pest management. We hypothesised that Pandora neoaphidis, a common aphid pathogenic fungus in temperate field crops, could be exploited in this way. Fundamental ecological studies on host range, dispersal and transmission were required to underpin this strategy. Field margin plants with potential as reservoirs of P. neoaphidis were identified, e.g. Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus), legumes such as bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and stinging nettles (Urtica dioica). Cross transmission and dispersal of the fungus between aphid species occuring in margins and crops and positive interactions with other natural enemies were demonstrated. Pest and non-pest aphids varied in their susceptibility to P. neoaphidis but there was no biological or molecular relationship between original host of an isolate and host range suggesting that free movement of P. neoaphidis between different aphid hosts was possible. These data underpin the exploitation of field margins as reservoirs of P. neoaphidis for aphid control.