Epizootic in gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) population in the field protective forest belts of State Hunting Enterprise Balchik in 2022

By

Georgiev, Georgi
Georgieva, Margarita
Mirchev, Plamen
Belilov, Sevdalin
Matova, Maria
Ivanov, Veselin
Radev, Radoslav
Kirilova, Maria

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023-7-4

Original Publication

Silva Balcanica

Volume

24

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

5--12

Subjects

Bulgaria , calamity , Entomophaga maimaiga , LdMNPV , Lymantria dispar

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Forest Research Institute - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (FRI-BAS) [2001]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/silvabalcanica.24.e108600

 

Abstract

Biological control of gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) was carried out in 2021 in the field protective forest belts at the territory of the State Hunting Enterprise Balchik by introducing the entomopathogenic fungus Entomophaga maimaiga (Entomophthorales: Entomophthoraceae). In the same year a mortality rate of 26.1% of the pest population was registered. In 2022 E. maimaiga and multiple nuclear polyhedrosis virus of L dispar (LdMNPV) caused a population collapse of the pest in the region. Azygospores of E. maimaiga were reported in the cadavers of about 5% of middle- and late-instar dead host larvae with LdMNPV polyhedra, which is an indirect indication of initial infection by the fungal pathogen. The epizootic of gypsy moth in the Balchik region is the first recorded case of coinfection by E. maimaiga and LdMNPV in Bulgaria.