SYMPATRIC OCCURRENCE OF 2 ENTOMOPHAGA-AULICAE (ZYGOMYCETES, ENTOMOPHTHORALES) COMPLEX SPECIES ATTACKING FOREST LEPIDOPTERA

Entomophthoralean fungi caused infections in sympatric larval populations of Lymantria dispar and Heterocampa guttivitta in New York and Vermont during 1989 and 1990. Gross morphology as well as restriction fragment length polymorphism and allozyme analyses determined that the Japanese fungus Entomophaga maimaiga was responsible for L. dispar mortality, while a different and otherwise unidentified member of the E. aulicae species complex was responsible for H. guttivitta mortality. Bioassays confirmed that the fungus infecting H. guttivitta was not E. maimaiga; the fungal isolate from H. guttivitta could not infect L. dispar larvae. © 1991.