Abstract Background The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is one of the most damaging pests crops grown in open field and under protected conditions. Owing to indiscriminate use insecticides, whitefly has developed resistance against various insecticides belonging different chemical groups. Use microbial biopesticides (entomopathogenic fungi) can be an effective alterna...

A strain of Acremonium kiliense (Fungi Imperfecti) produced a water-soluble, dialyzable, heat-stable agent that rendered Cladophora glomerata (Chlorophyta) chlorotic and inhibited its growth.

In this study, we report evidence that temperature plays a key role in determining the relative abundance of two mutualistic fungi associated with an economically and ecologically important bark beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. The symbiotic fungi possess different optimal temperature ranges. These differences determine which fungus is vectored by dispersing host beetles as temperatures fluctua...

Soils support an enormous microbial diversity, but the ecological drivers of this diversity are poorly understood. Interactions between the roots of individual grass species and the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and bacteria in their rhizoplane were studied in a grazed, unimproved upland pasture. Individual root fragments were isolated from soil cores, DNA extracted and used to identify pla...

A number of studies have shown that an association with mycorrhizal fungi can alter the outcome of interactions between plants and their enemies. While the directions of these effects vary, their strength suggests the need for greater attention to multispecies interactions among plant enemies, plants, and mycorrhizal fungi. We recognize that mycorrhizal fungi could effect plant enemies by impro...

While the effects of habitat size and isolation have been successfully studied for macro-organisms, there is currently debate about their relative importance in explaining patterns of microbial species richness. In this study, we examine the species richness of a dominant group of eukaryotic soil microbes, ectomycorrhizal fungi, on 'tree islands' of constant age and host composition that range ...

The present study deals with the side effect of four entomopathogenic fungi EPF, Metarhizium anisoplia (Metchnikoff), Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo), Paceliomyces fumosoroseus(Vassiljevsky) and Cladosporium cladosporiodes (Fresen), which used mainly against insect pests spider mites, on phytoseiid predatory mite, Cydnoseius negevi(Swirski Amitai) in laboratory.  Spore suspensions LC50 (1x106=106 ...