Commercial biopesticides based on entomopathogenic fungi are expected to be registered for use as microbial biological control of aphids in Australia in the near future. Field trials of prototype biopesticides based on entomopathogenic fungi have shown that while aphids are highly susceptible, natural enemies are not affected in the field, even though they are susceptible in the laboratory (DAQ111C). Based on the work of Roy et al. (2008), the hypothesis tested was that beneficial insects have behavioural responses to the biopesticides that allow them to avoid infection. The project observed the behaviour of predators of aphids (green lacewings) and both infected aphids and cotton leaf surfaces treated with biopesticides. Most of these studies were conducted on leaves taken from cotton plants grown in temperature controlled growth cabinets at QUT. The biopesticides used are based on a commercial formulation of the fungus Metarhizium (Met 52, Novozymes Ltd), and Australian isolates of Beauveria, both held at QUT.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the ecological relationship and behaviours between two particular natural enemies of the cotton pest Aphis Gossypii (Cotton Aphid); Mallada signatus (Green Lacewing) (supplied by Bugs for Bugs) and M. anisopliae. The goal of the study is to be able to improve management of insect pests in the future. More specifically this study aims to identify if M. signatus larvae can detect the presence of insect pathogenic fungi M. anisopliae. M. signatus is a non-selective or generalist predator. The lack of a specific prey make this insect extremely useful as a biological control because once the pest population has been brought to low levels the predator will then move on to a different more abundant prey in the area which means that the population of pest insects will be slower to recover as there is ongoing predation in the area keeping numbers of pests low.