Entomopathogenic Nematode

Entomopathogenic Nematode

Entomopathogenic nematodes are soil-inhabiting, lethal insect parasitoids that belong to the phylum Nematoda, commonly called roundworms. The term entomopathogenic comes from the Greek word entomon, meaning insect, and pathogenic, which means causing disease. Although many other parasitic nematodes cause diseases in plants, livestock, and humans, entomopathogenic nematodes, as their name implies, only infect insects. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) live inside the body of their host, and so they are designated endoparasitic. They infect many different types of soil insects, including the larval forms of butterflies, moths, beetles, and flies, as well as adult crickets and grasshoppers. EPNs have been found in all inhabited continents and a range of ecologically diverse habitats, from cultivated fields to deserts. The most commonly studied genera are those that are useful in the biological control of insect pests, the Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae (Gaugler 2006).