Metarhizium anisopliae
| Metarhizium anisopliae | |
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| Cockroach killed by M. anisopliae | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Sordariomycetes |
| Order: | Hypocreales |
| Family: | Clavicipitaceae |
| Genus: | Metarhizium |
| Species: | M. anisopliae |
| Binomial name | |
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Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin (1883) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Metarhizium anisopliae, formerly known as Entomophthora anisopliae (basionym), is a fungus that grows naturally in soils throughout the world and causes disease in various insects by acting as a parasitoid. Ilya I. Mechnikov named it after the insect species it was originally isolated from: the beetle Anisoplia austriaca. It is a mitosporic fungus with asexual reproduction, which was formerly classified in the form class Hyphomycetes of the form phylum Deuteromycota (also often called Fungi Imperfecti).
It has long been recognised that many isolates are specific, and they were assigned variety status, but they have now been assigned as new Metarhizium species, such as M. anisopliae, M. majus and M. acridum (which was M. anisopliae var. acridum and included the isolates used for locust control). Metarhizium taii was placed in M. anisopliae var. anisopliae, but has now been described as a synonym of M. guizhouense (see Metarhizium). The commercially important isolate M.a. 43 (a.k.a. F52, Met52, etc.), which infects Coleoptera and other insect orders has now been assigned to Metarhizium brunneum.
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