title: Beauveria bassiana infection alters colony development and defensive secretions of the beetles Tribolium castaneum and Ulomoides dermestoides (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).
abstract: We studied the effect of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana strain GHA on a) colony development of the beetles Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and Ulomoides dermestoides (Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) under laboratory conditions; and 2) the volatile blend released by both beetles, containing defensive pheromones, by using the solid phase microextraction technique. Colony development of both species was strongly altered 3 mo after treatment with B. bassiana, showing a significant reduction in progeny of 37.5% for T. castaneum and 50.0% for U. dermestoides. We also showed that the volatiles released by T. castaneum diminished close to 20% compared with those of healthy beetles, whereas in U. dermestoides secretions dramatically dropped to 5%, 7 d after immersion in 1 x 10(9) conidia per ml. These results suggest that after infection events take place, fungus-induced diminished secretion of the defensive pheromones may be a physiologic clue for behavioral changes in infected beetles.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, UNLP, calles 60 y 120 (1900) La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pedrini
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Villaverde
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Fuse
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Dal Bello
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Juárez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052982:Beauveria / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000382:microbiology*; D034582:Integumentary System / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity