New Report of Distribution of Entomopathogenic Fungi Aschersonia sp. Infected Whitefly in Bali

Laporan Baru tentang Distribusi Jamur Entomopatogenik Aschersonia sp. yang Menginfeksi Kutu Putih di Bali. Penelitian tentang distribusi jamur entomopatogenik Aschersonia sp. dilakukan untuk mengetahui persebaran Aschersonia yang menginfeksi kutu putih di seluruh Bali. Penelitian tersebut dilakukan di Kabupaten Gianyar, Bangli dan Buleleng pada centra perkebunan jeruk dimulai tahun 2014 sampai tahun 2018. Aschersonia pertama kali ditemukan pada tahun 2014 di Desa Sekaan Kintamani Bangli dan Desa Kerta Payangan Kabupaten Gianyar, dan pada tahun 2018 ditemukan di Desa Gobleg Sukasada Kabupaten Buleleng. Distribusi jamur tersebut ditemukan di dataran tinggi dan tidak ditemukan di dataran rendah. Hal ini sangat terkait dengan keadaan iklim terutama kelembaban dan suhu. Jamur Aschersonia sangat baik tumbuh pada suhu 20°C yang berada pada dataran tinggi. Kata kunci: jamur entomopatogenik, kutu putih, dataran tinggi


At the beginning of 2014 in Bangli
Regency, which is a citrus-producing center in Bali, it was found a species of fungi that has characteristics similar to Aschersonia. The discovery of this fungi was also encountered in a number of very large and quite wide spread until the area of Gianyar Regency.
Almost all fungi were found on the attached on the down side of the citrus leaf.
Aschersonia is an entomopathogenic fungi or an insect pathogen that is can be the controlling agent especially for the whitefly and scale insect pest. This fungi can infect whitefly in both nymph and imago stadia. This fungi infection in whitefly also have a really unique typical symptoms. This fungi can be found infecting whitefly in the tropics and subtropics with a diverse range of species (Meekes et al., 2002).

One of importance species of
Aschersonia is Aschersonia aleyrodis.

Aschersonia aleyrodis itself is a species of
Aschersonia that has been widely studied and reported for its ability to suppress some species of whiteflies (Gao et al., 1985;Fransen et al., 1987;Faria and Wraight, 2001;Meekes et al., 2002;Qiu et al., 2003), and has been developed commercially in the Netherlands (Evans and Hywel-Jones, 1990) and the former Soviet Union (Faria and Wraight, 2007). In addition the species of Aschersonia above, that has potential as a biocontrol agent against whitefly pests have registered or under development (Fransen, 1990;Charnley and Collins, 2007

Recognition of Symptom of Aschersonia
The shape and color of the stroma can be directly observed in the field and is usually located down side of the leaves where the host lived. The leaves of the plant then plucked and put in a plastic bag and tightly closed so that the sample lasts a long time.

Aschersonia in Bali
The methods to determine the distribution of Aschersonia was carried out in Samples taken were plant leaves containing whitefly that have infected by Aschersonia.
Samples were put into plastic bag and labeled with place and date of sampling.

Climate Data Information
The climate data was collected from each location of distribution of insect pathogen, the data include altitude, temperature, and humidity.

Recognition of Entomopathogenic Fungi
Aschersonia sp.
Along with field observations, sampling activities were also carried out. Sampling was the first step of identification in this study.
Sampling was carried out in conjunction with a field survey to find locations where there was the attack of pathogenic fungi Aschersonia. The search for the existence of Aschersonia was carried out in several locations in Tabanan, Gianyar, Buleleng, and Bangli Regency that recognized as citrus production center.
After successfully found the location of Aschersonia, the next step is to collect the strands of the leaves plants contained Aschersonia.

Aschersonia in Bali
Aschersonia is an entomopathogenic Between the driest and wettest months, the difference in precipitation is 410 mm (Anonym, 2018;BPS, 2017). Aschersonia actually has tolerance on low humidity up to 50%, but in this condition Aschersonia will not grow and develop properly (Fransen, 1987 Aschersonia to spread conidia from one place to another or even to insects (Meeks et al., 2002). Rain is also able to help provide the water needed by the Aschersonia conidia to germinate. Therefore rain can be said to be a determining factor for the development and spread of Aschersonia.
The abundant of Aschersonia was found in high land area in Bali around 1000 m above sea level (asl). The high land area is related with the climate condition, humidity, temperature for growth of the fungi. Humidity and temperature in high land area is suitable for Aschersonia growth to infected the insect host (Mishra, et al. 2015;Jaworski and Hilszczański, 2013). In low land area the host insect were found, however the climate condition is not suitable for Aschersonia growth.