38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology

In terms of biological control, fungal pathogens are the most important microbial agents for control of pest aphids. There are many species of fungi that attack aphids and epizootics are common. Much has been learned about the factors that affect transmission of aphid pathogens such as: aerial movement of conidia, relative humidity, sunlight, host density, resting spore biology, movement of infected alatae, behavior of infected aphids, and host range. In spite of this many questions remain and manipulating fungi to produce epizootics in aphids remains a difficult feat. Examples of what is currently known about fungal pathogens of Aphis gossypii, Aphis glycines and other species will be discussed, particularly the pathogen Neozygites fresenii.