Location: Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory
2019 Annual Report
Objectives
Over the next five years we will focus on the following objective:
Objective 1: Develop novel pest management technologies for control of coffee berry borer, involving the use of sesquiterpene repellents and the fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium anisopliae.
• Sub-objective 1.A. Determine the effectiveness of a recently identified sesquiterpene as a coffee berry borer repellent.
• Sub-objective 1.B. Evaluate the biological control potential of microsclerotial formulations of the fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium spp.
These objectives will integrate various components that we believe are essential to greatly improving available pest management tactics and to move the field into a new direction.
Approach
The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, is the most devastating insect pest of coffee worldwide. Endemic to Africa, the beetle is now present in most coffee growing regions. Since most of its life cycle is spent inside the coffee berry, it is extremely difficult to control. Recent efforts aimed at managing the coffee berry borer have focused on biological control alternatives, including the release of parasitoids and the use of fungal entomopathogens. Mass production of some parasitoids has not been optimized, and in cases where these have been imported from Africa and released in the field, results have not been promising. Delivery of fungal entomopathogens remains a major obstacle due to the cryptic nature of the insect and the difficulty and cost of spraying in coffee plantations. This project will focus on two areas that will likely result in improved control of the coffee berry borer: (1) Determining the effectiveness of a repellent in reducing infestation levels; and (2) Assessing the effectiveness of microsclerotial granules of various species of the fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium against coffee berry borers that remain inside berries that have fallen on the ground. The results of this research project will greatly contribute towards the development of novel control tactics against this important agricultural pest.
Progress Report
Progress was made on Objective 1, Subobjective 1A, which falls under National Program 304, Crop Protection and Quarantine, Component 3, Insects and Mites, Sub-component 3A: Agricultural and Horticultural Cropping Systems, Problem Statement 3A2: Systems approach to environmentally-sound pest management. Under Subobjective 1A, and in collaboration with a scientist in Mexico, we conducted research to test the coffee berry borer repellent in the field. We have also been conducting research aimed at determining whether the bacteria involved in caffeine breakdown in the coffee berry borer are transmitted from the mother to its progeny via the egg. We have recently sequenced 50 different bacterial isolates recovered from the insect and in collaboration with a bioinformatician are determining whether a caffeine breakdown gene is present in these isolates. Finally, we have been studying possible acoustic communication in the coffee berry borer and have been fine tuning the recording equipment after obtaining >150 recordings.
Accomplishments
Review Publications
Donga, T., Vega, F.E., Klingen, I. 2018. Establishment of the fungal entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana as an endophyte in sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum. Fungal Ecology. 35:70-77.
Poinar, G., Vega, F.E. 2018. A mid-Cretaceous ambrosia fungus, Paleoambrosia entomophila gen. et sp. nov. (Ophiostomotales: Ophiostomataceae) in Burmese amber. Fungal Biology. 122:1159-1162.
Poinar, G., Vega, F.E. 2019. A mid-Cretaceous trichomycete, Priscadvena corymbiatus gen. et sp. nov., in Burmese amber. Fungal Biology. 123:393-396.
Castillo, A., Martinez, F., Gomez, J., Cisneros, J., Vega, F.E. 2019. Sterility of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), caused by the nematode Metaparasitylenchus hypothenemi (Tylenchidae: Allantonematidae). Biocontrol Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1080/09583157.2019.1597336.
Alba-Alejandre, I., Alba-Tercedor, J., Vega, F.E. 2018. Micro-CT to document the coffee bean weevil, araecerus fasciculatus (Coleoptera: Anthribidae), inside field-collected coffee berries (Coffea canephora). Insects. 9(3):100.
Ziska, L.H., Bradley, B.A., Wallace, R.D., Bargeron, C.T., Laforest, J.H., Choudhury, R.A., Garrett, K.A., Vega, F.E. 2018. Climate change, carbon dioxide and pest biology; Managing the future. Agronomy Journal. 8:152.
Alba-Alejandre, I., Alba-Tercedor, J., Vega, F.E. 2018. Observing the devastating coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) inside the coffee berry using micro-computerized tomography. Scientific Reports. 8:17033.
Poinar, G., Vega, F.E., Legalov, A. 2018. New subfamily of ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Platypodidae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese ambe. Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2018.1528446.
