Towards more sustainable pest control strategies through a metagenomic survey of viral entomopathogens in canegrubs populations

The greyback canegrub, (D. albohirtum) and French’s canegrub (L. frenchi), are the most damaging and widespread sugarcane pests. Greyback canegrub larvae can cause industry wide financial losses of up to AU$40 million annually. The Australian sugar industry relies on the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, for control of canegrubs. This approach is not sustainable as overreliance on a single compound presents significant risk of resistance. These compounds are already banned in Europe and the persistent residues that they leave in the wider environment will have negative impacts on the Australian sugar industry. Canegrub larvae are susceptible to a few pathogens that could be responsible for significant suppression of their local populations and they will be identified and assessed for suitability to create biological control agents. The focus of this study is to identify novel insect-specific viruses for the biological control of canegrubs.