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Symptoms shown by late-stage larvae of the West Indian sweet potato weevil Euscepes postfasciatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) infected with Farinocystis sp. (Neogregarinida: Lipotrophidae)

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Abstract

Pathogen outbreaks often represent a major issue when mass rearing target insects for biological control, even when applying sterile insect techniques (SIT). Here, we aimed to improve existing screening techniques used to detect a neogregarine Farinocystis sp. that infects the West Indian sweet potato weevil Euscepes postfasciatus Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) mass reared under the SIT program. Our results revealed that infected late-instar larvae exhibited swelling symptoms, and that their body weight and head width significantly increased compared to uninfected larvae. The head width to body weight ratio differed between infected and uninfected larvae; yet, head width was highly correlated with body weight in both cases. Visual diagnosis based on the appearance of the late-instar larvae showed concordance of almost 90 % with the current diagnostic methods of optical microscopy and PCR. Thus, the swelling symptoms observed in late-instar larvae were directly noticeable. Therefore, visual diagnosis, based on larval appearance, represents a feasible, low-cost technique for the early detection of Farinocystis sp. infection of the West Indian sweet potato weevil.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the Okinawa Prefectural Plant Protection Center and Ryukyu Sankei Co. Ltd. for their assistance with insect rearing and sampling. This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 26450067 to N.K.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Okinawa Prefectural Plant Protection Center, 123 Maji, Naha, Okinawa, 902-0072, Japan

    Kaori Tsurui, Tsuyoshi Ohishi, Norikuni Kumano, Kiyohito Teruya, Tetsuya Toyosato & Keiko Shiromoto

  2. Ryukyu-Sankei Co. Ltd., 586 Takayasu, Tomigusuku, Okinawa, 901-0242, Japan

    Kaori Tsurui, Norikuni Kumano, Tetsuya Toyosato & Keiko Shiromoto

  3. Laboratory of Entomology, Graduate School of Agriculture, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa, 903-0213, Japan

    Kaori Tsurui & Norikuni Kumano

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  1. Kaori Tsurui
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  2. Tsuyoshi Ohishi
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Correspondence to Kaori Tsurui.

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Tsurui, K., Ohishi, T., Kumano, N. et al. Symptoms shown by late-stage larvae of the West Indian sweet potato weevil Euscepes postfasciatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) infected with Farinocystis sp. (Neogregarinida: Lipotrophidae). Appl Entomol Zool 50, 245–254 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-015-0329-8

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