RESEARCH ARTICLE Chrysodeixis chalcites nucleopolyhedrovirus (ChchNPV): Natural occurrence and efficacy as a biological insecticide on young banana plants in greenhouse and open-field conditions on the Canary Islands Ernesto Gabriel Fuentes1, Estrella HernaÂndez-SuaÂrez1, Oihane SimoÂn2☯, a1111111111 Trevor Williams3☯, Primitivo Caballero2,4☯* a1111111111 a1111111111 1 Dpto. ProteccioÂn Vegetal, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, Valle Guerra, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, 2 Instituto de AgrobiotecnologõÂa, CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra, Mutilva, Navarra, Spain, 3 Instituto de a1111111111 EcologõÂa AC, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, 4 Dpto. ProduccioÂn Agraria, Universidad PuÂblica de Navarra, a1111111111 Campus ArrosadõÂa s/n, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Citation: Fuentes EG, HernaÂndez-SuaÂrez E, SimoÂn Abstract O, Williams T, Caballero P (2017) Chrysodeixis chalcites nucleopolyhedrovirus (ChchNPV): Natural Chrysodeixis chalcites, an important pest of banana crops on the Canary Islands, is usually occurrence and efficacy as a biological insecticide controlled by chemical insecticides. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the on young banana plants in greenhouse and open- most prevalent isolate of the Chrysodeixis chalcites nucleopolyhedrovirus (ChchNPV, Bacu- field conditions on the Canary Islands. PLoS ONE 12(7): e0181384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. loviridae) as a biological insecticide. Overall the prevalence of ChchNPV infection in C. chal- pone.0181384 cites populations was 2.3% (103 infected larvae out of 4,438 sampled), but varied from Editor: Miguel Lopez-Ferber, Ecole des Mines 0±4.8% on Tenerife and was usually low (0±2%) on the other islands. On Tenerife, infected d'Ales, FRANCE larvae were present at 11 out of 17 plantations sampled.