title: First record of epizootics in the ocola skipper, Panoquina ocola (Lepidopera: Hesperiidae), caused by Isaria tenuipes in flooded rice fields of Central Brazil.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We report the first occurrence of an epizootic of the ascomycete fungus, Isaria tenuipes (teleomorph Cordyceps takaomontana), on the ocola skipper Panoquina ocola (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), an insect pest affecting rice in Brazil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Field surveys in flooded rice fields in the state of Goiás in Brazil were conducted, and a fungal pathogen of a caterpillar pest (P. ocola) was serendipitously found. This fungus inflicted high infection levels (average 86·2%) mainly to the pupal stage during warm, humid growing conditions. Typically, mycosed pupal cadavers produced milky-white to pale yellow synnemata bearing an average of 1·1 ± 0·2 × 109conidia per cadaver. Based on phylogenetic analysis using beta-tubulin gene sequences, we confirmed that all 12 isolates obtained from field-mummified pupae were identifiable as I. tenuipes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data expand our knowledge on the host and geographical ranges of this mycopathogen and underscore its epizootic potential to affect a lepidopterous insect pest on rice in Brazil. This finding may facilitate the exploitation of this fungus as a mycoinsecticide.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Isaria tenuipes may be used as an effective and environmentally friendly bioinsecticide against agricultural caterpillar pests due to its epizootic potential, as well as explored for medicinal purposes by pharmaceutical industry.
authors.affiliation: EMBRAPA Rice and Beans, Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Mascarin
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Crop Bioprotection Research Unit, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL, USA.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Dunlap
authors.affiliation: EMBRAPA Rice and Beans, Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: J A F
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Barrigossi
authors.affiliation: EMBRAPA Rice and Beans, Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Quintela
authors.affiliation: EMBRAPA Rice and Beans, Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: de Noronha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D055868:Floods; D006999:Hypocreales / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000145:classification / Q000382:microbiology*; D012275:Oryza; D010802:Phylogeny; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000302:isolation & purification
keywords: Cordycipitaceae; biological control; epizootiology; phylogenetics; rice pests