The rice stem bug, Tibraca limbativentris Stal, 1860 (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), is an important pest of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Brazil, mainly in flooded system of cultivation. The effect of two ways of application (conidia in aqueous suspension and on rice grain) of Metarhizium anisopliae strain 172 for the control of the rice stem bug, was evaluated in three experiments conducted in 1991, 1992 and 1994 in commercial irrigated rice. In 1991, the spraying of conidia suspension and manual distribution of rice grain covered with fungal material at dose of 7.2 x 10(13) conidia.ha-1, on soil and among rice stems, where the bugs were located, reduced significantly the insect natural population with control efficiencies of 52.6 and 61.8%, respectively. Studies about establishment and persistence of fungal conidia in soil, using the colony forming unity (CFU) counts, indicated that the fungus persisted in the soil between two rice crop seasons, up to 216 days after application, when new rice crops were established. The number of CFU was greater in the plots treated with rice grain covered with fungal material. The linear growth of CFU in the control plots showed that the fungus spread to the untreated areas of the rice field. Significant control efficiency was obtained in 1993 for grain and aqueous fungus treatment with 48.2% and 51.8%, respectively. In 1994, the conidial suspension at dose of 5x10(13) conidia.ha-1 resulted in control efficiency of 39.5%. The level of insect mycosis, however, was low in both 1993 and 1994, reaching a maximum of 20% mycosis in 1993. The low numbers of insect with mycosis compared with the level of mortality, may probably reduce the rate of fungal dissemination in rice fields and, consequently, be detrimental to the occurrence of epizootics.
Insecta; Oryza sativa; microbial control; entomopathogenic fungus; soil persistence
