Diversity of Beauveria fungi infecting spotted lanternfly

The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (White), was first detected in southeastern Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since expanded its range to six more states and has been detected in three more.  In fall 2017, spotted lanternfly cadavers were sent to our lab and determined to be killed by Beauveria – a genus of fungal entomopathogens known to infect sap-sucking insects.  In 2018, our lab made repeated visits to Berks County, Pennsylvania and we found epizootics occurring in fall, caused by the fungal entomopathogens Beauveria bassiana and Batkoa major.  In 2018 and 2019, we collected spotted lanternflies and other insects killed by Beauveria in >10 field sites located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. To date, we have identified 90 different Beauveria isolates from spotted lanternfly adults, 1 from a spotted lanternfly nymph and 4 from different insects in the same field sites that were sampled in 2018. All 2018 isolates were identified as Beauveria bassiana, but there were 24 different genotypes based on sequence data from the Bloc nuclear intergenic region.  One genotype (A) was found in every field site and was the most prevalent, accounting for 35 out of 95 isolates.  Genotype A did not have any 100% matches to B. bassiana sequences on GenBank and it could be a candidate strain for inundative biological control of spotted lanternflies.